Saddle-Billed Stork

• Range: A fairly common resident to the north and eastern parts of South Africa, also found throughout Africa, south of the Sahara.
  
• Habitat: Tropical and subtropical Africa in wet grassland, swampland and lakes.
  
• Description: One of the tallest species of storks, it stands up to 58 inches high. It has a large crimson bill with a black band and a triangular yellow frontal shield, and has black legs with reddish joints. The overall coloring is black and white – the head, neck, tail and wing-coverts are black, the remaining plumage and the flight feathers are white.
  
• Diet: It feeds on grasshoppers, fish, frogs and lizards, foraging in shallow water by walking slowly and jabbing at prey with the bill. Sometimes it will stand and wait for prey or may stir the mud with its foot.
  
• Behavior: Storks differ from other birds in that they have no muscles in their voice boxes. They communicate by rattling their bills. They are all strong flyers and alternately flap and glide across the sky.
  
• Breeding: A platform of sticks on the top of a bush or a tree near water holds the clutch of one or two eggs. The incubation, which occurs from January through July, takes 33 days.