painted stork

Description:

This large stork has a heavy yellow bill with a down-curved tip that gives it a resemblance to an ibis. The head of the adult is bare and orange or reddish in colour. The long tertials are tipped in bright pink and at rest they extend over the back and rump. There is a distinctive black breast band with white scaly markings. The band continues into the underwing coverts and the white tips of the black coverts give it the appearance of white stripes running across the underwing lining.

Habitat:

This one was wading across one of the many pools at the entrance of Yala national park in Sri Lanka It is also found in the wetlands of the plains of tropical Asia south of the Himalayas in South Asia and extending into Southeast Asia.