Lesser Adjutant

Lesser Adjutant ( Leptoptilos javanicus)

The Lesser Adjutant ( Leptoptilos javanicus) is a South Asian of stork, also known as Malay or Java Stork Marabou.

Features

The 110-120 centimeters long Lesser Adjutant has a wingspan of 210 centimeters. The top and the wings are black, the belly and underside of tail white in color. He has a bald head, a powerful beak and a membranous sac goiter. The Lesser Adjutant flies with retracted head.

Occurrence

The distribution area of the Sunda marabou ranges from southern China to India and south to Java. It inhabits the coastal mangroves, salt marshes, lakes and inundated by the flood grasslands. He avoids the proximity of people.

Behavior

The Lesser Adjutant hunts mainly fish, such as mudskippers or climbing fish, but also amphibians, crustaceans, grasshoppers and small rodents. When hunting he slowly walks through the muddy areas and trying to flush out the hidden here mudskippers. He lowers his beak deep into the mud. At carrion they go, unlike the other two Marabu species, rather rare.

Reproduction

The breeding season of the Sunda marabou varies greatly in different areas. In northern India it ranges from November to January; Sumatra It breeds in June and in Borneo in October. The stork nests in wetlands of the tropical lowlands. He built his up to 1.5 meters large nest on trees in 12-30 meters in height. It breeds in small breeding colonies, often together with the milk and the stork Argala Marabou. The nest consists of two to four eggs, and is incubated by both parent birds around thirty days. The boys are practically naked to the world, but soon develop a dense, whitish down dress. Both parents feed the young birds birds tirelessly. With about two months, the young Sunda marabou can fly, then accompany their parents for a few weeks at their flights and then drag alone going on.

Stock

The number of Sunda marabou goes back over their entire range. Most commonly it is with over 1000 birds on the east coast of Sumatra, which is half of the Indonesian population. Elsewhere it is rare. To live in Vietnam only 50 birds. The reasons for the decline are the destruction of habitat and disturbance during the nesting season.