Stork

(vertebrate zoology) An order of predominantly long-legged, long-necked birds, including herons, storks, ibises, spoonbills, and their relatives.

Family: Herons and Bitterns
Family: Hammerheads
Family: Storks
Family: New World Vultures
Family: Shoebills
Family: Ibises and Spoonbills

(Herons, storks, spoonbills, ibis, and New World vultures)

Class: Aves

Order: Ciconiiformes

Number of families: 6

Number of genera, species: 43 genera; 120 species

Evolution and systematics

Among the six families that make up the order Ciconiiformes, the New World vultures (Cathartidae) occupy the most incongruous of positions. Historically, they were classified as belonging to the order Falconiiformes. Physical and behavioral similarities to carrion-feeding, hook-beaked, bare-headed Old World vultures made their inclusion in this order seem obvious. But similarities between New and Old World vultures are actually a case of convergent evolution. DNA hybridization studies show that the New World vultures' closest relatives are storks and thus they are generally accepted by taxonomists as Ciconiiformes, placed in the suborder Cathartae.

Yet ornithologists re-classify this family in its new home with great reluctance. Even in Raptors of the World, published in 2001, Ferguson-Lees and Christie admit that "however they are treated taxonomically, they also continue to be thought of as raptors" and unashamedly include the New World vultures in this authoritative species guide.

Their closest relatives, the true storks, share their place in the suborder Ciconiae with the ibis and spoonbill family. Fossil remains of storks are extensive, with the first identifiable stork dating to the Upper Eocene.

The shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) is, as of 2001, generally placed in the same suborder as storks, but like the hammerhead (Scopus umbretta), which sits on its own in the suborder Scopi, it defies convenient classification. The shoebill has physical characteristics that could place it among storks, herons, flamingos, or plovers.

The heron family, in the suborder Ardeae, is a very old group whose origins are in the Lower Eocene, 55 million years ago. It consists of four subfamilies, broadly defined as day herons, night herons, tiger herons, and bitterns.

Physical characteristics

All Ciconiiformes share the basic characteristics: a long bill and neck, a bulky body with a short tail, large, broad wings, and long legs and toes. Members of the family Ardeidae share a pectinate, or comblike, middle claw. Most herons, egrets, and bitterns have dagger-shaped bills. Those of storks are thicker and generally considerably longer. In Threskiornithidae, the bill is the defining morphological characteristic: the ibis bill is decurved, while the spoonbill does indeed have a flattened, spoon-shaped bill. New World vultures have developed meat-eating beaks, with hooked tips and sharp edges.

Without exception, Ciconiiformes are medium to very large birds. Herons show the widest variation among genera, ranging from the Ardea day herons, with the largest, the goliath heron (Ardea goliath), reaching 55 in (140 cm), to the Ixobrychus bitterns. But even the smallest of these, the dwarf bittern (Ixobrychus sturmii), is a respectable 11 in (28 cm) in length. The closely related stork and New World vulture families include some of the largest birds in the world. The male marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) stands 4.9 ft (1.5 m) high; Leptoptilos storks and cathartids have very large wings adapted for soaring flight; the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) has the largest wingspan at 10.5 ft (3.2 m).

This order tends to lack brightly colored plumage, with most species possessing a combination from gray, brown, black, or white. Most show no sexual dimorphism other than size differences, with males up to 10% larger. Those species which feed diurnally and gregariously, including many egrets, storks, and ibises, tend to be light in color. This may be so that they are less visible to prey looking up from water into the light, or for thermoregulation, since white plumage does not absorb heat as quickly. Also, waterbirds with striking light upper parts, easily seen at great distances, attract other gregarious feeders to exploit feeding opportunities. Conversely, nocturnal, and shade-feeding species, such as bitterns and night herons, have dark underparts or cryptic plumage, and blend with murky surroundings. These solitary feeders have no wish to attract attention from other Ciconiiformes.

Coloration of bare parts is often of great importance in the Ciconiiformes. In many, color changes in the legs, bill, and lore (small area between the eye and bill) take place immediately before courtship, with these bare parts becoming brighter or even—most frequently in the egrets—changing altogether, generally from yellow to red or black. The colors fade or alter again after eggs are laid, suggesting that these changes are an important part of breeding display.

The effects of color changes are most pronounced in those families where bare parts can extend to include the face, throat, neck and even the breast. Some storks, most ibises and all vultures have extensive featherless areas that usually intensify in color during courtship. A few storks and vultures can exaggerate the display by inflating large air pouches in the neck.

A feature of many heron species before courtship is the development in both males and females of ornamental plumes. Night herons and some day herons such as the great blue (Ardea herodias) and capped heron (Pilherodius pileatus), gain backward-facing head plumes which are rounded at the base and tapered at the ends (lanceolate). Some grow filoplumes, feathers resembling fine, thin hair, down the neck and breast. Most egrets have long, delicate aigrettes, ornamental plumes which trail loosely from their backs. Herons, bitterns, and egrets have powder downs, a type of feather that is not shed but becomes powder, conditioning and protecting the other feathers.

Distribution

While Ciconiiformes are found in all but the northern and southernmost parts of the earth, most species are found in tropical or sub-tropical regions. A number of those in northern temperate zones are partial or true migrants.

Habitat

With the possible exception of cathartid vultures, this order predominantly, but not exclusively, favors wetlands (103 out of 113 species), from tidal creeks, rivers, and forest streams to swamps, marshes, paddy fields, and damp meadows. Some species also forage on land-neighboring waterbodies. A few are adapted to feeding wholly in dry habitats such as savannah, light woodland, or moorland.

The range of New World vultures is governed by their ability to soar and find carrion, rather than by temperature, so they can occupy cold, mountainous areas as well as tropical forests. Scavenging abilities have enabled some species to spread into areas of dense human habitation.

Behavior

Most Ciconiiformes exhibit gregarious behavior, although the extent varies considerably among species and in function. Roosting is one of the most sociable activities within this order. Conspecifics may roost in the same colony as other Ciconiiformes and Pelicaniiformes. Roosts of gregarious herons, ibises, and storks are usually in trees, occupied year after year, and may number hundreds or even thousands of birds. Most New World vultures roost communally; American black vultures (Coragyps atratus) roost together in large numbers and reports from the 1940s of 20 or more California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) together suggest that this species' roosts were also sizeable in previous centuries. Even the otherwise solitary hammerheads roost colonially. Studies on American black vultures suggest that colonial roosting has at least one important function; inexperienced or less successful birds leave the roost to follow good hunters to sources of food. For most species, it may also be an antipredator measure.

Potential threats from predators may influence the choice of many species to nest colonially too. A total of 61% of Ciconiiformes are known to nest colonially. Various other hypotheses have been put forward; for example, social nesting may be a way of ensuring that birds have a good choice of mates for breeding.

Ciconiiformes have a limited vocal repertoire. At one extreme, cathartid vultures have no syrinx, the "voice box" that enables most birds to call and sing. The soft wheezes and whistles given at the approach of an intruder are probably only air passing through their mouth and nasal passages. Likewise, storks, shoebills, ibises, and spoonbills have little to say. Storks are silent for most of the year. Only during the breeding season do they emit a range of whistles, croaks, squeals, and grunts—usually when one birds greets another at the nest. Storks and shoebills indulge in noisy bill snapping and clattering as part of their courtship display. Ibises and spoonbills engage in bill clattering too, generally during confrontations.

Herons are the most vocal of Ciconiiformes, with most producing a range of grunts, honks, and croaks. These are emitted in greeting ceremonies during courtship, when disturbed, during antagonistic encounters, or in flight. The bitterns are exceptional in having a modified esophagus, which enables them to produce a booming call to attract a mate and proclaim a territory.

Since many Ciconiiformes must cope with extremes of temperature and humidity, they have evolved a number of thermoregulatory patterns of behavior. The extensive bare parts in many species have a large number of blood vessels close to the skin, enabling birds to radiate heat from the body. Conversely, these species are at risk from heat loss in colder conditions. Some storks of the genus Ciconia spend part of the year in temperate areas. In cold conditions, they stand on one leg, or tuck the bill beneath body plumage in an effort to reduce heat loss. Storks and vultures engage in sunning to warm up, standing with the wings outstretched. Among the various hypotheses for wing-stretching—including nest-shading, exposure of plumage parasites to ultraviolet light, social displays, skin conditioning during molting, maintenance of balance, and straightening of feathers after long periods of soaring—the two foremost are wing-drying and thermoregulation.

Storks, shoebills and vultures share the unusual characteristic of cooling down by urohydrosis—excreting urine on the legs to increase evaporation. Most herons, ibises, and spoonbills use the more common method of heat reduction in tropical areas, by gaping or fluttering their gular pouches.

Few Ciconiiformes are truly sedentary. A number, which spend part of the year in north temperate areas are migratory. Most species show some degree of dispersive behavior or irregular movements, usually to exploit food sources.

Most migratory species follow a north-south post-breeding route from temperate latitudes to tropical or subtropical areas, with cold weather the factor that drives migration. Some, such as American wood storks (Mycteria americana), move from southern breeding areas to more northern areas, to feed following breeding. Populations in warmer southern parts of the breeding range of species such as great blue herons (Ardea herodias), turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) and white-faced ibises (Plegadis chihi) do not migrate.

Ciconiiformes' large, broad wings are adapted for soaring on thermals and this is the most common method involved in distance travel over land among vultures, storks, ibises, and spoonbills: some of the world's biggest concentrations of these migrants are recorded passing over narrow strips of land between continents, such as Panama, or short sea crossings, including the Straits of Gibraltar and the Bosporus. Herons, however, have a slow, strong, flapping flight, enabling them to fly large distances over oceans. Purple herons (Ardea purpurea), for example, migrate over the widest parts of the Mediterranean Sea between Africa and Europe.

Feeding ecology and diet

The Ciconiiformes are mostly carnivorous. Those feeding in aquatic habitats eat predominantly fish, amphibians, crustaceans, insects, and mollusks. Other terrestrial and more catholic feeders take small mammals and birds, reptiles and, in a very few species, fruit and berries. The cathartid vultures, marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) and greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) are unique among Ciconiiformes in obtaining most of their food by scavenging.

All species forage for food by sight or by touch. Vultures also use their strong sense of smell. Most herons and storks stand still or wade slowly through shallow water to stalk prey and rely on striking quickly. Ibises, spoonbills, and storks of the genus Mycteria hunt by touch, either probing in water with slightly open bills, or moving them from side to side.

Solitary feeders defend feeding territories, which can be large in bigger species. Goliath heron (Ardea goliath) territories in South Africa average one bird per 3.7 mi² (6 km²). Gregarious feeders, often in mixed groups together with other Ciconiiformes and Pelicaniiformes, may exploit a temporary glut of food; the presence of a large number of birds attracts more to share the bounty. Birds on the edges of a feeding group spend longer looking out for predators. Flocks move seasonally to take advantage of optimal conditions—as one feeding area dries out or floods, they move to find more suitable habitat.

Reproductive biology

The pattern of nesting behavior is similar for most colonial and solitary nesting species. Most are monogamous. Nesting is timed to coincide with the period of peak prey availability. In temperate areas this is spring and summer. Subtropical species tend to nest during the dry season to avoid the threat of flooding. Tropical species usually nest in the wet season, when food is more plentiful.

The nest is nearly always a rough stick construction made by the female using material brought by the male. In most species, it is built in a tree, bush, low vegetation, or on the ground. The male arrives at the nest site first and defends his territory, often with stretching displays or wing flapping. The arrival of the female prompts greeting ceremonies that can be complex and may include bill snapping and tapping, mutual preening, and presenting of nest material.

In colonial-nesting species, egg-laying is almost simultaneous. Incubation is usually carried out by both species. Young are hatched blind and almost naked. Some ibis and spoonbill chicks hatch with a fine down. Often, both adults brood the young continuously for the first few weeks. The parent bird returning to the nest with food either regurgitates it onto the nest floor, or waits for the young to reach into its mouth and fish out a regurgitated meal.

After fledging, young of some species begin feeding with their parents, but return to the nest to rest. When the young finally abandon the nest, they often disperse over significant distances. Young black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) travel distances of up to 621 mi (1,000 km) from the colony where they were hatched. This reduces risk of overcrowding and enables species to exploit new habitats.

Vultures are exceptional, since they build no nest. The egg or eggs are laid on the ground in a cave, under a bush, in a large tree hole, or in an abandoned building. Hatchlings are covered with white down (or buff in black vultures). Both parents feed the young regurgitated food. Vulture young remain dependent on their parents for long periods—in the case of condors, it is six months before they even learn to fly.

Conservation status

Just over a fifth of Ciconiiformes (21 species) are under a serious level of threat, according to the IUCN, ranging in increasing degree from Endangered and Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. All but three of these species show downward population trends. An additional seven species are classified as Near Threatened.

The vulnerability of Ciconiiformes is due to a number of factors. Their large size, relatively sedentary habits, and slow flight make them easy targets for human persecution. Noisy, colonial nesting in regularly used sites by a number of species, and regular gathering in high concentrations at feeding sites increases their vulnerability, as chicks and eggs are taken and adults snared or shot by humans for food. In Asia, the white-shouldered (Pseudibis davisoni) and giant (Pseudibis gigantea) ibis, greater adjutant and milky stork (Mycteria cinerea) are among those species severely threatened by hunting. As human populations rise, pressures from hunting and disturbance increase. So too, do development threats. In the late 1990s, Japanese night herons (Gorsachius goisagi) lost habitat in Japan to golf courses, housing, and factories.

Waterbird species are particularly vulnerable to pollution. Throughout the world, there is evidence of its impact on Ciconiiformes. One of the main causes of the decline of the Oriental white stork (Ciconia boyciana) on the upper Amur in Russia has been pollution from industrial waste, oil leakages, pesticides, and fertilizers. The black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) is threatened in China, where an estimated 63.1% of the rivers in the seven main river systems are polluted, according to Shen Maocheng in 2000.

The trend towards agricultural exploitation of ciconiiform habitats, particularly in Asia, has accelerated. Most of the Mekong floodplain in Laos, once a stronghold of the white-shouldered ibis, has been converted to rice paddy. Forest clearance and conversion of wetlands to agriculture in densely populated China, has fragmented the habitats of species such as the white-eared night heron (Gorsachius magnificus). In Indonesia and Malaysia, coastal wetlands, such as mangrove swamps, are increasingly logged and cleared to make way for fish farms and tidal rice cultivation.

Conservation efforts are addressing this generally bleak picture. For some species, the immediate aim is to carry out surveys to locate and quantify remaining populations and conduct research to understand breeding requirements, demography, and seasonal movements. Conservation groups and governments are working to establish protected areas, encompassing large tracts of habitat found to support populations of endangered species. The Japanese ibis (Nipponia nippon) is one such species, now severely restricted in range, but thanks to protection, one of only three Critically Endangered species showing an upward population trend.

In Laos and Cambodia, stricter enforcement of regulations and public campaigns to reduce the hunting of large water-birds are underway. At Prek Toal reserve, in Cambodia, egg and chick theft of greater adjutant storks fell by 80% in 1997. Attempts at restoration of habitats include a replanting scheme in Assam to replace felled nesting trees of lesser adjutant storks (Leptoptilos javanicus).

Captive-breeding may offer hope for species whose declines are not habitat-related. The California condor, driven to extinction in the wild, largely by hunting pressures and poisoning by lead shot, will benefit from a successful reintroduction program in North America if such human pressures can be controlled. But this option is not open to the increasing number of species whose habitat is being obliterated.

Significance to humans

Myths and superstitions have historically safeguarded the populations of many Ciconiiformes. Native peoples of the Americas venerated condors and vultures as gods. Even today the Andean condor appears on the coats of arms of Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. Positive associations also benefited the European white stork (Ciconia ciconia), Abdim's stork (Ciconia abdimii), and the sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). White storks were considered lucky in Europe. To have one nesting on one's roof would increase fertility and wealth. Abdim's storks arrived on their breeding grounds in central Africa at the same time as life-giving rains. The "rain-bringer" was given the run of every village. Similarly, the sacred ibis returned annually to the Nile when the river flooded. The ancient Egyptians therefore worshipped it as a god. Fear motivated the protection of bitterns and hammerheads. The strange booming call of the Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) marked it as a bird of ill omen among Australian aboriginals. African villagers considered it unlucky to harm the crepuscular hammerhead or its inexplicably huge nest.

Ciconiiformes have suffered because of their perceived economic threat or value to humans. Heavily commercialized hunting of egrets, ibises, and spoonbills for their feathers during the nineteenth and early twentieth century saw millions of birds slaughtered annually. In North America, vultures were killed because they were seen, unjustifiably, as a threat to cattle farming. Herons were shot, principally in North America and Europe, since they were regarded as a threat to fishing interests.

Today, there is generally a greater acceptance of Ciconiiformes and a tolerance of those birds that live near humans. Night herons can be found in the center of built-up Hong Kong.

Resources

Collar, N. J., et al. Threatened Birds of Asia: BirdLife International Red Data Book. Cambridge: BirdLife International, 2001. del Hoyo, J., A. Elliot, and J. Sargatal, eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1, Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Editions, 1992. del Hoyo, J., A. Elliot, and J. Sargatal, eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2, New World Vultures to Guinea Fowl. Barcelona: Lynx Editions, 1994.

Hancock, J. A., H. Elliott, and R. T. Peterson. The Heron's Handbook. New York: Harper Trade, 1984.

Hancock, J. A., J. A. Kushlan, and M. P. Kahl. Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World. San Diego: Academic Press, 1992.

Sibley, C. G., and J. E. Ahlquist. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990.

BirdLife International Saving Species. Birdlife International. 1 July 2001 (1 Feb. 2002).

Georgia Wildlife Web. The Georgia Museum of Natural History. 2 May 2000 (30 Jan 2002). .

The Peregrine Fund. 23 Jan. 2002 (1 Feb. 2002).

[Article by: Derek William Niemann, BA]

An order of predominantly long-legged, long-necked wading birds including herons, ibises, spoonbills, storks, and their allies, and also the hawklike New World vultures which were previously placed in the Falconiformes.

The order Ciconiiformes is divided into four suborders and seven families: Ardeae, with the family Ardeidae (herons; 62 species); Balaenicipites, with the family Balaenicipitidae (shoe-billed stork; 1 species); Ciconiae, with the families Scopidae (hammerhead; 1 species), Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills; 33 species), and Ciconiidae (storks; 17 species); and Cathartae, containing the families Teratornithidae (Miocene to Pleistocene of South and North America) and Cathartidae (New World vultures; 7 species).

The herons, shoe-billed stork, hammerhead, ibises and spoonbills, and storks are mainly wading birds with strong legs, living in marshes and other wet areas. They feed on fish, amphibians, and other animals, which are caught in various ways depending on the structure of the bill. Some of the storks are scavengers. Most species are colonial and nest in mixed, often huge, colonies in trees or on the ground, as well as a few on cliff ledges. All are strong fliers, usually having to cover a long distance between the nesting site and feeding areas; some are excellent soarers.

The New World vultures are placed in a separate suborder to emphasize their specialization as scavengers. These vultures are large soaring birds; the Andean condor has the largest wing span of any living land bird. Vultures locate their food from the air either by sight or by smell; these abilities differ in the several species. Vultures may be solitary or hunt in loose flocks; larger concentrations may exist during the winter. They nest solitarily, with the nest placed on the ground or on a cliff ledge. The one to three young remain in the nest until they can fly. See also Aves.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: order of chiefly tropical marsh-dwelling fish-eating wading birds with long legs and bills and (except for flamingos) unwebbed feet: herons; storks; spoonbills; flamingos; ibises
  Synonym: order Ciconiiformes

For other uses, see Stork (disambiguation).

Storks
Immature Asian Openbill Stork
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Neornithes
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Superorder:	Neoaves
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ciconiidae Gray, 1840
Genera
Anastomus Ciconia Ephippiorhynchus Jabiru Leptoptilos Mycteria

Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills, belonging to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the biological order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families.

They occur in most of the warmer regions of the world and tend to live in drier habitats than the related herons, spoonbills, and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Storks have no syrinx and are mute, giving no bird call; bill-clattering is an important mode of stork communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, and small birds or mammals. There are 19 living species of storks in six genera.

Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires thermal air currents. Ottomar Anschütz's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders of the late 19th century. Storks are heavy, with wide wingspans: the Marabou Stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10.5 ft), joins the Andean Condor in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds.

Their nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some have been known to grow to over 2 m (6 ft) in diameter and about 3 m (10 ft) in depth. Storks were once thought to be monogamous, but this is only partially true. They may change mates after migrations, and may migrate without a mate. They tend to be attached to nests as much as partners.

Storks' size, serial monogamy, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Systematics 2.1 Living storks 2.2 Fossil storks 3 Symbolism of storks 3.1 Childbirth 3.2 In popular culture 3.3 Regional symbolism 4 Mythology of storks 5 Footnotes 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Sister project links

Etymology

The modern English word can be traced back to Proto-Germanic *sturkaz. Nearly every Germanic language has a descendant of this proto-language word to indicate the (White) stork. Related names also occur in many Eastern European, especially Slavonic languages, originating as Germanic loanwords.

According to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the Germanic root is probably related to the modern English "stark", in reference to the stiff or rigid posture of a European species, the White Stork. A non-Germanic word linked to it may be Greek torgos ("vulture").

In some West Germanic languages cognate words of a different etymology exist. They originate from *uda-faro, uda being related to water meaning something like swamp or moist area and faro being related to fare, so *uda-faro being he who walks in the swamp. In later times this name got reanalyzed as *ōdaboro, ōda "fortune, wealth" + boro "bearer" meaning he who brings wealth adding to the myth of storks as maintainers of welfare and bringing the children:

In Estonian, "stork" is toonekurg, which is derived from toonela (underworld in Estonian folklore) + kurg (crane). It may seem not to make sense to associate the now-common white stork with death, but at the times they were named, the now-rare black stork was probably the more common species.

Systematics

Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala

Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus

Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus

Woolly-necked Stork Ciconia episcopus with Black-headed Ibis

Following the development of research techniques in molecular biology in the late 20th century, in particular methods for studying DNA-DNA hybridisation, a great deal of new information has surfaced, much of it suggesting that many birds, although looking very different from one another, are in fact more closely related than was previously thought. Accordingly, the radical and influential Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy greatly enlarged the Ciconiiformes, adding many more families, including most of those usually regarded as belonging to the Sphenisciformes (penguins), Gaviiformes (divers), Podicipediformes (grebes), Procellariiformes (tubenosed seabirds), Charadriiformes, (waders, gulls, terns and auks), Pelecaniformes (pelicans, cormorants, gannets and allies), and the Falconiformes (diurnal birds of prey). The flamingo family, Phoenicopteridae, is related, and is sometimes classed as part of the Ciconiiformes.

However, morphological evidence suggests that the traditional Ciconiiformes should be split between two lineages, rather than expanded, although some non-traditional Ciconiiformes may be included in these two lineages.

The exact taxonomic placement of New World Vultures remains unclear.^[1] Though both are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, the New World and Old World Vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world and are not closely related. Just how different the two families are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures belong in Ciconiiformes.^[2] More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World Vultures^[3] or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes.^[4] The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World Vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.^[1]

Some official bodies have adopted the proposed Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy almost entirely; however, a more common approach worldwide has been to retain the traditional groupings, and modify rather than replace them in the light of new evidence as it comes to hand. The family listing here follows this more conservative practice. Bird taxonomy has been in a state of flux for some years, and it is reasonable to expect that the large differences between different classification schemes will continue to gradually resolve themselves as more evidence becomes available.

Recently a DNA study found that the families Ardeidae, Balaenicipitidae, Scopidae and the Threskiornithidae belong to the Pelecaniformes. This would make Ciconiidae the only group.

Distinct and possibly widespread by the Oligocene, like most families of aquatic birds storks seem to have arisen in the Paleogene, maybe 40-50 million years ago (mya). For the fossil record of living genera, documented since the Middle Miocene (about 15 mya) at least in some cases, see the genus articles.

Though some storks are highly threatened, no species or subspecies are known to have gone extinct in historic times. A Ciconia bone found in a rock shelter on Réunion island was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the Mascarene Islands.

Living storks

• Genus Mycteria
  • Milky Stork, Mycteria cinerea
  • Yellow-billed Stork, Mycteria ibis
  • Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala
  • Wood Stork, Mycteria americana
• Genus Anastomus
  • Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans
  • African Openbill Stork, Anastomus lamelligerus
• Genus Ciconia
  • Abdim's Stork, Ciconia abdimii
  • Woolly-necked Stork, Ciconia episcopus
  • Storm's Stork, Ciconia stormi
  • Maguari Stork, Ciconia maguari
  • Oriental Stork, Ciconia boyciana (formerly in C. ciconia)
  • White Stork, Ciconia ciconia
  • Black Stork, Ciconia nigra
• Genus Ephippiorhynchus
  • Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus
  • Saddle-billed Stork, Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis
• Genus Jabiru
  • Jabiru, Jabiru mycteria
• Genus Leptoptilos
  • Lesser Adjutant, Leptoptilos javanicus
  • Greater Adjutant, Leptoptilos dubius
  • Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus

Fossil storks

• Genus Palaeoephippiorhynchus (fossil: Early Oligocene of Fayyum, Egypt)
• Genus Grallavis (fossil: Early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France, and Djebel Zelten, Libya) - may be same as Prociconia
• Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (Ituzaingó Late Miocene of Paraná, Argentina)^[5]
• Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (Puerto Madryn Late Miocene of Punta Buenos Aires, Argentina)^[6]
• Genus Prociconia (fossil: Late Pleistocene of Brazil) - may belong to modern genus Jabiru or Ciconia
• Genus Pelargosteon (fossil: Early Pleistocene of Romania)
• Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. - formerly Aquilavus/Cygnus bilinicus (fossil: Early Miocene of Břešťany, Czechia)
• cf. Leptoptilos gen. et sp. indet. - formerly L. siwalicensis (fossil: Late Miocene? - Late Pliocene of Siwalik, India)^[7]
• Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (fossil: Late Pleistocene of San Josecito Cavern, Mexico)^[8]

The fossil genera Eociconia (middle Eocene of China) and Ciconiopsis (Deseado Early Oligocene of Patagonia, Argentina) are often tentatively placed with this family. A "ciconiiform" fossil fragment from the Touro Passo Formation found at Arroio Touro Passo (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) might be of the living Wood Stork M. americana; it is at most of Late Pleistocene age, a few 10.000s of years^[9].

Symbolism of storks

Childbirth

Woman defending herself against child-bearing stork while dealing with her drunken alcholism... she is insane and needs to get a life Postcard, c.1900.

In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. In Victorian times the details of human reproduction were difficult to approach, especially in reply to a younger child's query of "Where did I come from?"; "The stork brought you to us" was the tactic used to avoid discussion of sex.^{[citation needed]} This habit was derived from the once popular superstition that storks were the harbingers of happiness and prosperity, and possibly from the habit of some storks of nesting atop chimneys, down which the new baby could be imagined as entering the house.

The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak is common in popular culture. The small pink or reddish patches often found on a newborn child's eyelids, between the eyes, on the upper lip, and on the nape of the neck are sometimes still called "stork bites". In fact they are clusters of developing veins that often soon fade.

The stork's folkloric role as a bringer of babies and harbinger of luck and prosperity may originate from the Netherlands and Northern Germany, where it is common in children's nursery stories. The baby is born and the stork delivers the baby to the house.

In popular culture

Baby-bearing stork in Buster Brown cartoon

In Walt Disney's 4th classic Dumbo, the stork (more generally "Mr. Stork") delivers babies to their animal mothers. At the beginning of the film, he delivers Dumbo to Mrs. Jumbo. He is voiced by Sterling Holloway. Several Warner Bros. cartoons — including Stork Naked and Apes of Wrath — cast a stork as a perpetually drunken employee of a baby-delivery service (drunk because of the celebratory toasts in which the recipient families often include the stork). In Tennessee Tuxedo, he is voiced by Jim Cummings.^[10]

Vlasic uses this child-bearing stork as a mascot in North America for its brand of pickles, merging the stork-baby mythology with the notion that pregnant women have an above-average appetite for pickles.

Regional symbolism

The white stork is the symbol of The Hague in the Netherlands, where about 25 percent of European storks breed, as well as of Poland, where the majority of the remainder breed. It is also a symbol of the region of Alsace in eastern France. It is also the national bird of Belarus.

Mythology of storks

Storks nesting near Aveiro, Portugal.

A White Stork in flight in Spain.

If not otherwise indicated, these usually refer to the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia).

• The motto "Birds of a feather flock together" is appended to Aesop's fable of the farmer and the stork his net caught among the cranes that were robbing his fields of grain. The stork vainly pleaded to be spared, being no crane.
• The Hebrew word for stork - "Hasida" (חסידה) was equivalent to "devotee" (namely a devout, God-fearing, religiously observant or righteous, pious and kind woman); it is in fact the female form of the word "Hasid" (חסיד) which became identitied with the Hassidic movement of Judaism. And the care of storks for their young, in their highly visible nests, made the stork a widespread emblem of parental care. It was widely noted in ancient natural history that a stork pair will be consumed with the nest in a fire, rather than fly and abandon it.
• In Greek mythology, Gerana was an Æthiope, the enemy of Hera, who changed her into a stork, a punishment Hera also inflicted on Antigone, daughter of Laomedon of Troy (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.93). Stork-Gerana tried to abduct her child, Mopsus. This accounted, for the Greeks, for the mythic theme of the war between the pygmies and the storks. In popular Western culture, there is a common image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in cloths held in its beak; the stork, rather than absconding with the child Mopsus, is pictured as delivering the infant, an image of childbirth.
• An ancient etymology about the Pelasgians, ancient pre-Hellenic inhabitants of Greece, links pelasgos to pelargos "stork", and postulates that the Pelasgians were migrants like storks, possibly from Egypt, where they nest.^[11] Aristophanes deals effectively with this etymology in his comedy the Birds. One of the laws of "the storks" in the satirical cloud-cuckoo-land (punning on the Athenian belief that they were originally Pelasgians) is that grown-up storks must support their parents by migrating elsewhere and conducting warfare.^[12]
• The stork is alleged in folklore to be monogamous although in fact this monogamy is serial monogamy, the pair bond lasting one season (see above). For Early Christians the stork became an emblem of a highly respected white marriage, that is, a chaste marriage. This symbolism endured to the seventeenth century, as in Henry Peacham's emblem book Minerva Britanna (1612) (see link).
• In Norse mythology, Hoenir gives to mankind the spirit gift, the óðr that includes will and memory and makes us human (see Rydberg link). Hoenir's epithets langifótr "long-leg" and aurkonungr "mire-king" identify him possibly as a kind of stork. Such a Stork King figures in northern European myths and fables. However, it is possible that there is confusion here between the White Stork and the more northerly-breeding Common Crane, which superficially resembles a stork but is completely unrelated.
• In rural Denmark, it means bad luck if a stork builds a nest on your roof; it means, that someone in the house will die before the end of the year.
• Though "Stork" is rare as an English surname, the Czech surname "Čapek" means "little stork".

• In Bulgarian folklore, the stork is a symbol of the coming spring (as this is the time when the birds return to nest in Bulgaria after their winter migration) and in certain regions of Bulgaria it plays a central role in the custom of Martenitsa: when the first stork is sighted it is time to take off the red-and-white Martenitsa tokens, for spring is truly come.
• For the Chinese, the stork was able to snatch up a worthy man, like the flute-player Lan Ts'ai Ho, and carry him to a blissful life.
• In Ancient Egypt the Saddle-billed Stork was associated with the human ba; they had the same phonetic value. The ba was the unique individual character of each human being: a stork with a human head was an image of the ba-soul, which unerringly migrates home each night, like the stork, to be reunited with the body during the Afterlife. [1]
• A series of sightings of a mysterious pterodactyl-like creature in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley in the 1970s has been attributed to an errant jabiru that become lost during a migratory flight and wound up in an unfamiliar region, or an Ephippiorhynchus stork escaped from captivity (see Big Bird).

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Remsen, J. V., Jr.; C. D. Cadena; A. Jaramillo; M. Nores; J. F. Pacheco; M. B. Robbins; T. S. Schulenberg; F. G. Stiles; D. F. Stotz & K. J. Zimmer. 2007. A classification of the bird species of South America. South American Classification Committee. Retrieved on 2007-10-15
2. ^ Sibley, Charles G. and Burt L. Monroe. 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of the Birds of the World. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-04969-2. Accessed 2007-04-11.
3. ^ Sibley, Charles G., and Jon E. Ahlquist. 1991. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-04085-7. Accessed 2007-04-11.
4. ^ Ericson, Per G. P.; Anderson, Cajsa L.; Britton, Tom; Elżanowski, Andrzej; Johansson, Ulf S.; Kallersjö, Mari; Ohlson, Jan I.; Parsons, Thomas J.; Zuccon, Dario & Mayr, Gerald (2006): Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils. Biology Letters online: 1-5. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0523 PDF preprint Electronic Supplementary Material (PDF)
5. ^ Tarsometatarsus fragments somewhat similar to Mycteria: Cione et al. (2000), Noriega & Cladera (2005)
6. ^ Specimen MEF 1363: Incomplete skeleton of a large stork somewhat similar to Jabiru but apparently more plesiomorphic: Noriega & Cladera (2005)
7. ^ Specimens BMNH 39741 (holotype, left proximal tarsometatarsus) and BMNH 39734 (right distal tibiotarsus). Similar to Ephippiorhynchus and Leptotilos, may be from a small female of Leptotilos falconeri, from L. dubius, or from another species: Louchart et al. (2005)
8. ^ Distal radius of a mid-sized Ciconia or smallish Mycteria: Steadman et al. (1994)
9. ^ Schmaltz Hsou (2007)
10. ^ Friedwald & Beck (1981)
11. ^ Strabo refers to this in Geography Book V, Section II, Part 4.
12. ^ Line 1355 and following.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ciconia episcopus

Wikispecies has information related to: Ciconia episcopus

• Cione, Alberto Luis; de las Mercedes Azpelicueta, María; Bond, Mariano; Carlini, Alfredo A.; Casciotta, Jorge R.; Cozzuol, Mario Alberto; de la Fuente, Marcelo; Gasparini, Zulma; Goin, Francisco J.; Noriega, Jorge; Scillatoyané, Gustavo J.; Soibelzon, Leopoldo; Tonni, Eduardo Pedro; Verzi, Diego & Guiomar Vucetich, María (2000): Miocene vertebrates from Entre Ríos province, eastern Argentina. [English with Spanish abstract] In: {{aut|Aceñolaza, F.G. & Herbst, R. (eds.): El Neógeno de Argentina. INSUGEO Serie Correlación Geológica 14: 191-237. PDF fulltext
• Friedwald, Will & Beck, Jerry (1981): The Warner Brothers Cartoons. Scarecrow Press Inc., Metuchen, N.J.. ISBN 0-8108-1396-3
• Louchart, Antoine; Vignaud, Patrick; Likius, Andossa; Brunet, Michel & and White, Tim D. (2005): A large extinct marabou stork in African Pliocene hominid sites, and a review of the fossil species of Leptoptilos. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50(3): 549–563. PDF fulltext
• Noriega, Jorge Ignacio & Cladera, Gerardo (2005): First Record of Leptoptilini (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae) in the Neogene of South America. Abstracts of Sixth International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution: 47. PDF fulltext
• Schmaltz Hsou, Annie (2007): O estado atual do registro fóssil de répteis e aves no Pleistoceno do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil ["The current state of the fossil record of Pleistocene reptiles and birds of Rio Grande do Sul"]. Talk held on 2007-JUN-20 at Quaternário do RS: integrando conhecimento, Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. PDF abstract
• Steadman, David W.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin; Johnson, Eileen & Guzman, A. Fabiola (1994): New Information on the Late Pleistocene Birds from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Condor 96(3): 577-589. DjVu fulltext PDF fulltext

External links

• 24 h Camera Live 24h camera from Stork's nest in Poland
• Scott MacDonald, "The Stork" emblematic uses
• Storks Image documentation
• Stork family Live webcam image from Hungary. Please allow a few seconds to download.
• Stork videos on the Internet Bird Collection

Sister project links

• Media related to Ciconiidae at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary definition of stork
•  "stork". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

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