Abdim stork
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Abdim stork ( Ciconia abdimii ) |
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| Ciconia abdimii | ||||||||||
| Lichtenstein , 1823 |
The Abdim's Stork , rain stork or Abdim ( Ciconia abdimii ) is an African type of Stork . It is a close relative of the European species white stork and black stork .
description
The plumage of the Abdim stork is colored black-brown on top with a purple or greenish sheen; the belly is white. The face is characterized by bare skin that is blue, red and pink in color; during the breeding season these are much brighter. With a length of 75 to 80 cm, the Abdim stork is significantly smaller than the white and black stork.
distribution
The breeding area is located south of the Sahara and extends from Senegal to Somalia . It is a characteristic breeding bird of the Sahel , the West African savannas and the Ethiopian highlands . A small breeding population is also found in Yemen . After the end of the breeding season, the storks fly over the equator on their way to their winter quarters and spend the rest of the year in East and South Africa.
The total population of the Abdim stork is estimated by the IUCN at 300,000 to 600,000 animals. He is therefore considered safe. The Abdim stork feeds almost exclusively on insects. Mainly locusts and caterpillars are its prey. This makes the Abdim stork an extremely popular bird in large parts of its range, for which large baskets are built on hut roofs in some villages to make it easier for it to build nests. In addition, according to local superstition , the Abdim stork is considered to bring luck and rain.
Systematics
Earlier the Abdim stork was placed in a monotypical genus Sphenorhynchus . The name Abdim goes back to Abdim Bey (1780-1827), the Egyptian governor of Dongola (in today's Sudan ), to whom the first describer Martin Lichtenstein felt obliged.
literature
- Ragnar Kinzelbach: Animal pictures from the first century: A zoological commentary on the Artemidor papyrus (= archive for papyrus research and related areas - supplements , volume 28). Walter de Gruyter, Leuven 2009, ISBN 3110225816 , pp. 107, 135.
- James Hancock, James A. Kushlan, M. Philip Kahl: Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World . A&C Black, 2010, ISBN 1408135000 .
Web links
- Ciconia abdimii in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 17 of 2008.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Ciconia abdimii in the Internet Bird Collection
- Abdimstorch at www.tierdoku.com, accessed on August 22, 2016