What to Know About the Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda?

The Saddle-Billed Stork in Uganda is one of the African Uganda Bird Species seen during Uganda Birding Tours. A saddle-billed stork is a large bird in the Ciconiidae family, Kingdom-Animalia, Phylum-Chordata, in the class of Aves.

It is one of the large wading birds in the stork and its closely similar to the black-necked stork. A saddle-billed stork has a length between 145-150cm, its bill is between 27.3 to 36 cm long, wingspan ranges from 240-270cm and the male can weigh from 5 to 7.5 while the female 5-7kg.

The saddle-billed stork is probably the tallest of the stork and can live up to 36 years. It is a widely spread bird in Semuliki National Park-Uganda.

“How Does the Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Look Like?

A saddle billed stork has black and white plumage, the lower back is black while its upperparts and mantle are white.

Its wings and the tail are blackish, but with a greenish color especially on the edges of the wings and tail. The down part of the saddle-billed stork (breast, belly, vent and under tail) are purely white.

Its head and neck are very dark, the bill-base is red, with visible yellow front shield (saddle) at the top base.

From the bill base, the slightly curved huge bill a very identifiable black band in the first half. And the rest of the bill is red.  Its eyes are dark brown, the legs are grey with pinkish knees, while the feet are black.

How Does the saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Sing and Make Calls?

A saddle-billed stork seldom make noise, the only sound you can hear is when it’s at nest clattering the bill like any other stork.

How Does the Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Feed?

It’s a slow walking bird that feeds mostly on fish, amphibians and crustaceans. Small mammals, reptiles and young birds can also be its prey, in its slow walking in shallow water, it can catch large water-beet.

It feeds like large herons, searches for the prey by diving the bill into water, mud or vegetation catch the prey by contact. The prey especially is fish is swallowed by the head first and then it drinks some water.

How Does a Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Nest?

A bonded-pair of saddle-billed stork builds a relatively flat nest in the tree, using sticks lined with reeds, sedges and mud. The nest is straight-like but deep enough to allow the adults to incubate.

How Does the Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Breed?

Saddle-billed storks frequently breed in pairs though they are occasionally seen in colonies between 10 to 12 birds.

They are monogamous birds, mates stay together all year round and form permanent pairs. They build a permanent nest breed in it year after year.

They display courtship by bill-clattering commonly done when one of the mates returns back to the nest.

How Does a Saddle-billed Stork in Uganda Reproduce?

A female saddle-billed stork lays either one or two big white eggs, about 146g each. The parents incubate the eggs for about 30-35 days.

After hatching, the chicks are fledged for about 70-100 days. The young ones can stay with their parents for about a year or two, because saddle-billed storks do not breed usually every year.