STORK 4/4 - Storm's Stork (lifer 587/688)

The final Stork species of Malaysia. I  have to travel to Sukau Sg Kinabatangan to see this bird. My family arrange a 3 days 2 night chalet stay package at Sukau Backpackers Bed & Breakfast. They will fetch you from the airport  at a price of RM400 per pax. The package include 4 river cruises; 2 in  morning session 6am-8am and the evening session 4pm-6pm and a night cruise. You may ask for birding  excursion  for you group at extra charge. Our guide Harry is very good in his profession in looking for any living animals in our way at Kinabatangan. 

This medium-sized stork stands at 75–91 cm tall and most of the plumage is black. The undertail coverts and the back of neck are white with a black cap. It has orange facial skin with a yellow ring surrounding the eye, a red iris, and a pinkish-red bill. On some but not all male individuals, the culmen of the bill is slightly concave with a basal knob.

Storm's stork feeds primarily on small fish, frogs, aquatic insect larvae, and sometimes earthworms. These are also the food items brought by both parents back for their young at the nest; with the fish measuring 5–7 cm long and weighing 10-30g, and the worms measuring 10–15 cm long. The parents regurgitate the food into the bottom of the nest, whereupon it is picked up and swallowed by the chicks. During a series of nest observations in southern Sumatra in 1989, adults were found to return to the nest with food for the chicks every 2–4 hours in June; but in July, food was brought to the nest less often and significantly more frequently in the late afternoons. In Sabah, they have also been reported to feed on grasshoppers and possibly crabs. Hence, other food taxa may be similar to those of the woolly-necked stork, but more data are required to fully confirm this,

This stork typically forages stealthily with slow, deliberate movements and a retracted neck  along muddy banks of rivers and creeks within dense primary forest keeping primarily to the shaded areas. Individuals with chicks usually forage 2–3 km from the nest. It will also use other freshwater bodies as foraging localities with high densities of fish and freshwater invertebrates. These include small pools, trackside puddles, swamps and oxbow lakes; and the Storm's stork may be able to use these features optimally where they occur in a patchwork arrangement on riparian floodplains. It can also use boggy clearings created by ungulates such as gaur that trample vegetation to access mineral licks. In contrast, deep, fast-flowing rivers and waterways are avoided by this species due to reduced prey availability and its inability to stand in these waters.