diagnostics

95-110 cm, 2.8 kg. A massive black stork, with a red bill and legs. Sexes differ slightly in size and bill dimensions. Head, neck and remainder of upperparts, including wings, black. Back has a glossy green sheen with purplish coverts. Upper breast black; lower breast, belly and undertail coverts white. Tail black. Skin around eye, bill and legs bright red. Eyes dark brown. Juvenile browner than adult, lacking iridescence. Bill, facial skin and legs dull grey-green (Anderson 2005).

trophic

The Black Stork is a solitary, cliff-nester (Hancock et al. 2010). Breeding takes place in winter which is an adaptation to take advantage of an abundance of prey in waterbodies with receding water levels (Siegfried 1967). Typically 2-5 eggs are laid. Nest predators include Verreaux's Eagle Aquila verreauxii, Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus and Chacma Baboon Papio ursinus (Cannell 1991). The Black Stork is one of few species to practise parental infanticide (Klosowski et al. 2002). A generation length of 15.9 years is provided by BirdLife International (2014).

The Black Stork is mainly piscivorous with fish constituting 91% of the diet (Chevallier et al. 2008). The species is absent from seasonal pans lacking fish (Allan 1997) but is readily found at dams, shallow pans and floodplains. The diet of nestlings differs to that of adults, and is predominantly made up of amphibians and insects (Hampl et al. 2005). Chevallier et al. (2008) found no correlation between the abundance of fish and sites selected by Black Storks, and suggest that the selection of fishing areas are influenced by other factors such as human activities.