Black-necked Stork - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

In India, it is widespread in the west, central highlands, and northern Gangetic plains into the Assam valley, but somewhat rare in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. This distinctive stork is an occasional straggler in southern and eastern Pakistan. It extends into Southeast Asia, through New Guinea and into the northern half of Australia. Compared to other large waterbirds like cranes, spoonbills and other species of storks, Black-necked Storks are least abundant in locations with a high diversity of waterbird species.

The largest population of this species occurs in Australia, where it is found from the Ashburton River, near Onslow, Western Australia across northern Australia to north-east New South Wales. It extends inland in the Kimberley area to south of Halls Creek; in the Northern Territory to Hooker Creek and Daly Waters; and in Queensland inland to the Boulia area and the New South Wales border, with some records as far south as the north-west plains of New South Wales, along the coast of Sydney and formerly bred near the Shoalhaven River. It is rare along the south-east extremity of its range, but common throughout the north. An estimated 1800 occur in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory, with overall numbers during surveys being low in all seasons.

The largest known breeding population occurs in the largely cultivated landscape of south-western Uttar Pradesh in India. Densities of about 0.099 birds per square kilometre have been estimated in this region made up of a mosaic of cultivated fields and wetlands. About six pairs were found to use the 29 square kilometres of the Keoladeo National Park.

In Sri Lanka, the species is a rare breeding resident, with 4-8 breeding pairs in Ruhuna National Park. It is exceedingly rare, and possibly extinct as a breeding bird, in Bangladesh and Thailand.

Black-necked Storks forage in a variety of natural and artificial wetland habitats. They frequently use freshwater, natural wetland habitats such as lakes, ponds, marshes, flooded grasslands, oxbow lakes, swamps, rivers and water meadows. Freshwater, artificial wetland habitats used by these storks include flooded fallow and paddy fields, wet wheat fields, irrigation storage ponds and canals, sewage ponds, and dry floodplains. In cultivated areas, they prefer natural wetlands to forage in, though flooded rice paddies are preferentially used during the monsoon, likely due to excessive flooding of lakes and ponds. Nests are usually on trees that are located in secluded parts of large marshes or in cultivated fields as in India.