Storks
| Stork Temporal range: Early Oligocene to present |
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|---|---|
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| Painted stork | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Aequornithes |
| Order: |
Ciconiiformes Bonaparte, 1854 |
| Family: |
Ciconiidae J. E. Gray, 1840 |
| Genera | |
| Diversity | |
| 6 genera | |
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called: Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families including herons and ibises.
Storks dwell in many regions and tend to live in drier habitats than the closely related herons, spoonbills and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, small birds and small mammals. There are nineteen living species of storks in six genera.
Various terms are used to refer to groups of storks, two frequently used ones being a muster of storks and a phalanx of storks.
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 nineteenth century. Storks are heavy, with wide wingspans: the marabou stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10 ft) and weight up to 8 kg (18 lb), joins the Andean condor in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds.
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Wikipedia