The Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from Sri Lanka east to Southeast Asia.
Asian Openbill Stork is a broad_winged soaring bird, which relies on moving between thermals of hot air for sustained flight. Like all storks, it flies with its neck outstretched. It is relatively small for a stork at 68cm length. They breed near inland wetlands and build stick nest in trees, typically laying 2_6 eggs.
Breeding adults are all white except for the black wing flight feathers, red legs and dull yellow-grey bill. The mandibles do not meet except at the tip, and this gives rise to the species' name. Non-breeding adults have the white of the plumage replaced by off-white. Young birds have brown tinge to the plumage.
The Asian Openbill Stork, like most of its relatives, walks slowly and steadily on the ground, feeding on molluscs, frogs and large insects.
References
Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp; Birds of India. ISBN 0_691_04910_6
The AsianOpenbills arrived only recently, and their numbers have swollen from the pioneering few to the thousands which now surely occupy most possible nest sites.
The AsianOpenbill is one of six species of storks which have bred in Thailand, and the only one still found in any numbers.
The partial exodus will also increase the survival chances of ThailandÂ’s Openbills; one huge nesting assembly is impressive, but it is better for the birds not to have all their eggs in one colony.
The AsianOpenbill nesting in a sacred grove near the Bharathapuzha.
A Thiruvananthapuram-based group of bird-watchers have recorded the nesting and breeding of the AsianOpenbill (Anastomus oscitans), a greyish white stork with fl flight feathers and tail, in a sacred grove at Shoranur in Palakkad district.
With a length of 68 cm, the AsianOpenbill is relatively small-sized for a stork.
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