Asian Openbill - Breeding

Breeding

The breeding season is after the rains, during July to September in northern India and November to March in southern India and Sri Lanka. They may skip breeding in drought years. The Asian Openbill breeds colonially, building a rough platform of sticks often on half-submerged trees (often Barringtonia, Avicennia and Acacia species), typically laying 2-4 eggs. The nesting trees are shared with those of egrets, cormorants and darters. Nesting colonies are sometimes in highly disturbed areas such as inside villages. The nests are close to each other leading to considerable jostling among neighbours. Both parents take turns in incubation, the eggs hatching after about 25 days. The chicks emerge with cream coloured down and are shaded by the loosely outspread and drooped wings of a parent. Like other storks, they are silent except for clattering produced by the striking of the male's bill against that of the female during copulation. They also produce low honking notes accompanied by up and down movements of the bill when greeting a partner arriving at the nest. Males may sometimes form polygynous associations, typically with two females that may lay their eggs in the same nest.