Painted Stork

• It hunts by touch, not by sight: it puts its half-open bill into the murky water and sweeps it from side to side until it brushes a fish, a technique known as tactolocation.
• As it wades it waggles one foot back and forth and suddenly opens the wing on that same side to flush hidden fish.
• It is the only member of the genus Mycteria with a black breast band.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Lowland wetlands of tropical Asia, south of the Himalaya, from the Indian subcontinent to South-East Asia. It nests in trees, in colonies that may gather several thousand pairs and are often shared with other waterbirds

Birth weight

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Size at birth

The chicks hatch altricial, featherless and with their eyes closed

Gestation / incubation

About 30 days, with both sexes incubating

Litter / clutch size

3-4 eggs, one clutch a year. The chicks fledge at 60 days

Lifespan in captivity

Up to 28 years

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List (BirdLife International 2023); Animal Diversity Web (Universidad de Michigan); Urfi 1993, Colonial Waterbirds 16; Urfi y Kalam 2006, Waterbirds 29(4); Rasmussen y Anderson 2005, Birds of South Asia

Best time: It breeds from August to October in northern India and from November to March in the south