Marabou Stork

• It is credited with the largest wingspan of any land bird alongside the Andean condor, though the figures of more than 3.19 m in circulation have never been verified.
• Its bare head and neck are an adaptation to scavenging, the same one the vultures it usually eats alongside have: feathers there would become matted with blood.
• In English it is called the "undertaker bird" for its silhouette from behind, with its wings like a cloak and its thin white legs.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Marshland and savannah of sub-Saharan Africa, both wet and arid, often near human settlements and especially at rubbish dumps

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; Hancock, Kushlan y Kahl 1992, Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World; Wood 1983, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats; eBird; Environmental Information Service Namibia

Best time: All year round in sub-Saharan Africa

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.