White Stork : Thermal updrafts assist their migration

 White Storks are large, wading birds. They are covered in white feathers, except for the black primary feathers on the wings; and have long, sharp bills and slender legs, both red.

Males are larger than females, but both have identical plumage. Hatchlings and the young have black bills and yellowish-grey legs.

Amazing Stork facts

Here are a few fun facts about these wading birds.

• There are 19 species of storks, and they have a lifespan of 30+ years.
• The marabou stork is the largest of all of these species, weighing 20 lbs. with a wingspan of 12 feet. The smallest, on the other hand, is the hamerkop, which only weighs 17 ounces.
• Identification is rather easy, since they stand so tall and primarily have white, black, and gray feathers.

marabou stork

hamerkop

Feed

Ciconia ciconia feeds by day. It is carnivorous and has a varied diet of small mammals, large insects, amphibians, snakes, lizards, earthworms, fish, eggs and hatchlings of ground-nesting birds, molluscs, and crustaceans.

In years of drought White Storks eat mainly insects and mice. In wet years their diet consists principally of aquatic animals.

White Storks search for food while walking with their bill pointing towards the ground. When prey is detected, they jab forward their bill in order to grab it.

They found 

They breed throughout Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Middle East. During the winter they migrate in flocks of thousands to tropical Africa, parts of the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.

Thermal updrafts assist their migration. For this reason, they avoid stretches of open water, such as the Mediterranean Sea.

Mate

Ciconia ciconia, from the age of 3 or 4, remains in a lifelong monogamous mating pair.

In spring, males return to breeding grounds, arriving a few days before females and immediately busy themselves enlarging the nest used the previous year. Females, on arrival, also participate in the nest-building. They nest in loose colonies of up to 30 pairs.

The male, when rejoined by the female, carries out the “head-shaking crouch” display. First, he lowers himself into the nest in an incubating posture. Then, stretching out his long neck, he begins to shake his head from side to side. Finally, the couple cement their pair bond with an “up-down” display, in which heads are pumped up and down with wings outstretched, accompanied by the clattering of bills.

Females lay 3 to 5 eggs (normally 4), which hatch after roughly 1 month. Within 8 weeks young White Storks may leave their nesting grounds and become independent.

Stork Behavior

The life of this bird is solitary, choosing to live alone unless it is breeding season. Some species choose to live in groups when they aren’t breeding, while others will live within a flock for their entire life. Their group behavior seems to change from one bird to the next.

Rather than tweeting a song like other birds, the call is a clattering noise made with their bill. Some people compare the sound to that of firing off a machine gun. These calls vary with what the bird is trying to communicate.

Habitat

White Storks love areas with shallow, still water that are neither too cold nor too humid. They avoid regions with vast tracts of tall or dense vegetation. So, they like areas similar to those preferred by humans for agriculture.

During the breeding season, Ciconia ciconia seeks out suitable structures for nest-building, such as tall trees, rooftops, chimneys, haystacks, pylons, telephone poles, or constructed nest towers.

The nest is usually built some 30 metres above ground. With up to 2 m in diameter and 3 in depth, the nest of the White Stork is among the largest of all birds. Sticks, branches, rags, paper, and other available materials are used for its construction.

Where to Find Storks

Most native species of storks come from Europe, and only one species – the wood stork – is even located in the United States. They prefer habitats with wetlands and marshes, giving them easy access to their preferred foods. Since they migrate towards the equator during autumn and winter, they are easiest to spot in the summertime atop buildings or near trees where they build their massive nests. They return after the coldest months have passed in February, March, and April, and the presence of their nests is meant to be a good omen.

Club-winged Manakin

Club-winged Manakin

The Club-winged Manakin (Machaeropterus deliciosus) is a resident breeder in the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador in South America.

Wings & Sound

The really cool part about this bird is that the males produce a violin-like sound in order to attract the females with their wings. Kind of like how crickets use wings to chirp!

According to a Cornell University ornithologist in the July 29 issue of Science, male club-winged manakins use specially adapted feathers in each wing to make a tone – much like a cricket chirping by rubbing together sound-making apparatus in its wings.

This sound makes the male more attractive to the females.

“Essentially an instrument has evolved in this species, in this case a refined instrument,” said Kimberly Bostwick, the paper’s lead author, a curator in the birds and mammals division of Cornell’s Museum of Vertebrates and a research associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Description

The colorful males of the species have brownish-red feathers, a bright red crown, and black and white wings. The less colorful females are mainly a yellow-green color.

The males of this species gather in an area in order to try and attract the attention of the females. The females mate with their chosen male, and then leave the mating area in order to build a nest and raise the young. The males don’t raise the young, they mainly stick around where they were before, trying to attract the next female. As you can tell, these birds don’t pair up for life.

They average 2.5 cm or 4.9 inches in length, from beak to tip of tail.

Diet

Club-winged Manakins mainly eat fruit but may sometimes supplement their diet with insects. In fact, they can open up their beaks quite a bit, so much so that they can swallow fruits quite large in size. In return for getting much-needed nutrition from the plants they depend on, these birds effectively disperse the seeds of the fruits they eat and, thus, help regenerate their own food supply in the process.

Breeding / Nesting

The average clutch consists of two eggs, which are incubated for 18 to 21 days.

Northern Lapwing

Northern Lapwing: Large, unique plover with black breast, face, crown, and long upright head plumes; back is green-tinged purple and copper. Belly and sides are white, uppertail is white with a black tip, and undertail coverts are rich rufous-orange. Wings are dark with white tips; legs are pink. Sexes are similar. Winter adult shows less black on face and has white edges on dark back feathers. Juvenile resembles winter adult but has fine spots on dark back, and shorter head plumes.

Range and Habitat

Northern Lapwing: This species is found in a wide variety of open areas with bare ground or low grasses. It is widespread in Europe and Asia; this bird occasionally wanders in the autumn to eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, extreme eastern Quebec, and the northeastern United States from Maine to Maryland.

Breeding and Nesting

Northern Lapwing: Breeds in a wide variety of open habitats ranging from wetlands to pastures and old fields. Lays four or five brown eggs with black markings that are primarily incubated by the female for 26 to 28 days. Chicks are independent soon after hatching but are guarded by one or both parents.

Foraging and Feeding

Northern Lapwing: Feeds in open fields and areas of bare ground, where it hunts for insects and small invertebrates by sight. Will run a few steps, pause and probe in ground, run a few steps.

Vocalization

Northern Lapwing: Call is a plaintive whistle “peewit.”

Similar Species

Northern Lapwing: Rare vagrant and unlikely to be confused with any species in North America.

Where and when to see them

Lapwings are found on farmland throughout the UK particularly in lowland areas of northern England, the Borders and eastern Scotland. In the breeding season prefer spring sown cereals, root crops, permanent unimproved pasture, meadows and fallow fields. They can also be found on wetlands with short vegetation. In winter they flock on pasture and ploughed fields. The highest known winter concentrations of lapwings are found at the Somerset Levels, Humber and Ribble estuaries, Breydon Water/Berney Marshes, the Wash and Morecambe Bay.

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Goldcrest

The goldcrest is the smallest bird in Europe, weighing on average just 5-7g (1/4 oz). With a characteristic dull olive-green top and white underbelly, the goldcrest is famed for the gold stripe on its crown, giving it a somewhat striking appearance. It is very similar to the Firecrest bird. Males and females differ only slightly. On the male, the crest stripe is orange; on the female, it is yellow.

Goldcrests are very quick birds, which makes them hard to spot. They tend to scurry from place to place, and do so on branches and around tree trunks. They can be distinguished by their high pitched calls. 

Goldcrest Feeding

Goldcrests feed mainly on insects and spiders, and as such are ground feeders. It is rare for goldcrests to venture into the garden and feed from bird tables; however, on very cold winter days, goldcrests can be found feeding from bird tables. It is worth bearing this in mind if you want to feed goldcrests from your garden table. Bread crumbs and small bits of cheese will attract them to the table on these cold winter days.

Goldcrest Breeding & Nesting

Goldcrest nests can often be located on conifer branches and buried among ivy. Typically, the goldcrest nest is made of moss, spiders webbing and lichens and is usually found to be lined with feathers.

Goldcrests eggs are a dull-white colour with light brown speckles. Breeding begins in late April; the incubation period lasts between 14-17 days and consequently there are around 19 fledge days. Both parents help to feed the young.