Ephippiorhynchus: taxon details and analytics

Domain
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Ciconiiformes
Family
Ciconiidae
Genus
Ephippiorhynchus
Species
Scientific Name
Ephippiorhynchus

Summary description from Wikipedia:

Ephippiorhynchus

Ephippiorhynchus is a small genus of storks. It contains two living species only, very large birds more than 140 cm tall with a 230–270 cm wingspan. Both are mainly black and white, with huge bills. The sexes of these species are similarly plumaged, but the eyes are dark brown in males and yellow in females. The members of this genus are sometimes called "jabirus", but this properly refers to a close relative from Latin America.

These large wading birds breed in marshes and other wetlands, building a large, deep stick nest in a tree. Like most storks, they fly with the neck outstretched, not retracted like a heron; in flight, they present a strange shape, with the head and large bill somewhat drooping down. They are silent except for bill-clattering at the nest.

Ephippiorhynchus storks, like most of their relatives, feeds mainly on fish, frogs and crabs, but also on young birds, and other land vertebrates. They move in a deliberate and stately manner as they hunt, in a similar way to the larger heron.

These birds are not infrequently kept in captivity by zoos or aviculturalists. Individuals occasionally escape, and these have been proposed to be responsible for sightings of "big bird" cryptids; the saddle-billed stork is the most likely basis for the kongamato cryptid.

The genus name Ephippiorhynchus is derived from Ancient Greek ephippos, a saddle (literally "something which is placed on a horse"), and rhynchus, "bill", and refers to the frontal shield which saddles the bill of one species.

...
 

Ephippiorhynchus in languages:

Bokmål
Svarthvitstorker
English
Black-necked and Saddle-billed Storks
English
Slender Storks
English
Black-and-white Storks
English
Large Pied Storks
Finnish
satulahaikarat
German
Großstörche
Hebrew
חסידת אוכף
Italian
Becco a sella
Japanese
セイタカコウ属
Russian
Седлоклювые ябиру
Swedish
jättestorkar
Thai
สกุล นกกระสาคอดำ นกกระสาปากอานม้า

Images from inaturalist.org observations:

We recommend you sign up for this excellent, free service.

Ephippiorhynchus
©beverleyanne, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)