Dave Taylor's African Safari: Trophic Level III: Omnivores and Small Carnivores - Yellow-billed Stork

Trophic Level III: Omnivores and Small Carnivores
Yellow-billed Stork
Page 11

Mycteria ibis

Length: 95 cm (37 inches)

Status: Common.

Habitat: The yellow-billed stork is found wherever fish are plentiful. In the Serengeti-Mara, they are often seen around rivers and marshes.

Food: A yellow-billed stork eats the fish and frogs that it catches as it probes muddy waters with its beak. It will sometimes stir the water with its foot to make prey move. Its beak is so fast that it snaps shut instantaneously when a fish or frog swims into it.

Yellow-billed storks will often feed with other waders such as common egrets and herons. Spawning frogs and toads present a banquet when they crowd into a pool. Most amphibians spawn at night when the storks are roosting to avoid attracting large numbers of these birds.

Social System/Behavior: Yellow-billed storks build a platform nest of sticks in a tree. They nest in colonies. Eggs are laid in two day intervals and both parents share the incubation. Storks pair for life and can recognize each other at long distances.

The eggs hatch in about a month. Both parents will bring food to the hatchlings. As with cattle egrets, the parents carry their food back to the young in their guts. The baby sticks its head into the parent’s opened beak and the food is regurgitated.

At about 2 months old the young are fledged.

Males and females are about the same size and there are few visible differences.

(Note: this stork was formerly known as the Wood Ibis (Ibis ibis). It has since been re-classified and renamed.)

Predators: The yellow-billed stork has few regular predators but some eagles and other large birds of prey may catch one from time to time. Crocodiles may also succeed in capturing one but that, too, is relatively rare. Leopards also present a threat.

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