KATHMANDU — They have a bare yellow neck and a head connected to a long pointed beak, and they can be easily spotted in Nepal’s agriculture fields when the rice plants turn green a few weeks after planting. Perching on tall trees, lesser adjutant storks scan the fields for prey such as fish, frogs, reptiles, […]
Tag: storks
The Weird and Wild Migration of the Wood Stork Raises Many Questions
The largest wading bird in North America and our only native stork species, the Wood Stork is an icon of the American Southeast. Wading through shallow freshwater cypress swamps, marshes, and lagoons, it is unmistakable, except when flying overhead, where it superficially resembles the American White Pelican. Like the pelican, Wood Storks are excellent fliers, […]
The stork and the farmer: A conservation parable with lessons from Nepal
KATHMANDU — Growing up in the southwestern plains of Nepal, Prashant Ghimire was always fascinated to observe birds roam the fertile farmlands. “I especially liked to watch storks and cranes fly. I would throw pebbles at them to make them fly,” remembers Ghimire, whose interest in birds led him to study forestry and then ornithology. […]
Disoriented by wildfires, migrating storks die crossing Greece
People in Athens ‘picking up dead storks from their lawns’, says head of wildlife association, as fires continue to ravage country. Migrating storks crossing through Greece on their way to Africa have fallen victim to the wildfires raging across the country for the past week, becoming disoriented by the flames and getting lost, injured or […]
Spain’s Endesa power firm sued over electrocution of birds
In Leonard Cohen’s famous song, a bird on a wire is a symbol of freedom, but for thousands of birds it is the equivalent of being sent to the electric chair. Now, in a landmark case, a Spanish electricity company is being prosecuted over the deaths of hundreds of birds electrocuted on pylons and overhead […]
Storks could become poisoned by pesticides during their migration to Africa
Not all storks migrate to Africa. Many stay for the winter in the Iberian Peninsula, where landfills have become a permanent source of food. Scientists from Extremadura have analysed the presence of pollutants and pesticides (some prohibited in Spain) in the blood of nestlings from three colonies, two of which are close to landfill sites. […]
Rain Sun Rain
Our newly arrived Red-Rumped Swallows start the task of nest building, feeding as the go. Black-eared Wheatears have been arriving with the lovely male photographed on the 15th. With a backdrop of the Grazalema mountain range Greater Flamingoes create a pink hue across the landscape as they move into feed at Venta La Palma on […]
