Black Stork

Ciconia nigra (Linnaeus, 1758)

95–100 cmLength150 cmWingspan2.9 kgWeight

This large wader has a black body, white belly, slender red legs and feet and a long, slender red bill.

Busiest months: September · Most records: Spain, Israel, India

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Black feathers with purple and green metallic gloss
Lower breast and belly white
Legs and feet long, slender and red; bill long, straight and red
Bare skin around the eye red

Male, female and young

Sexes identical in appearance; male averages larger. Juvenile has similar plumage, but the black areas are browner with less metallic gloss; legs and feet, bill and bare skin around the eye are gray-green.

Voice

Main call is “chee leee”, like a deep intake of breath; hisses in warning or threat.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: September · Most records: Spain, Israel, India

Black Stork has been recorded at 1,271 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 99 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

Spain Israel India Greece China Portugal Türkiye Czechia

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The black stork (Ciconia nigra) is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Measuring on average 95 to 100 cm (37 to 39 in) from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm (57-to-61 in) wingspan, the adult black stork has mainly black plumage, with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Black Stork?

The Black Stork is about 95–100 cm long, with a wingspan of 150 cm and weighs around 2.9 kg.

Where does the Black Stork live?

Its breeding range: Africa, Palearctic: Namibia and Malawi to South Africa, central Europe to northern China. It is most often recorded in Spain, Israel and India.