Ciconia

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For the composer, see Johannes Ciconia. For the video game, see Ciconia When They Cry.

Ciconia
Temporal range: Early Miocene to present
Fledgling (left) and adult
European white stork (Ciconia ciconia ciconia)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Ciconiiformes
Family: Ciconiidae
Genus: Ciconia
Brisson, 1760
Type species
Ardea ciconia
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

Ciconia abdimii

Ciconia boyciana

Ciconia ciconia

Ciconia episcopus

Ciconia maguari

Ciconia microscelis
Ciconia nigra

Ciconia stormi

Synonyms

Dissoura

Euxenura

Sphenorhynchus

Ciconia (

Classical Latin: [kiˈkoː.ni.a]) is a genus of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the maguari stork has a South American range. In addition, fossils
suggest that Ciconia storks were somewhat more common in the tropical Americas in prehistoric times.

The genus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) as the type species.[1][2] The genus name is the Latin word for "stork",[3] and was originally recorded in the works of Horace and Ovid.[4]

The Abdim's stork is the smallest of the family, but other species in the genus are generally medium-sized storks, with long legs and a long thick bill. The members of this genus are more variable in plumage than other stork genera, but all species are black (at least to the wings) and white (at least underparts or neck). Juveniles are a duller, browner version of the adult.

Depending on species, breeding can be in solitary pairs or colonies. Pairs usually stay together for life. They typically build large stick nests in trees, although the Abdim's stork sometimes will nest on cliffs, the maguari stork will nest on the ground and at least three species will construct their nests on human habitations. One of these, the white stork, is probably the best known of all storks, with a wealth of legend and folklore associated with this familiar summer visitor to Europe.

These storks feed on frogs, insects, fish, crustaceans, small birds, lizards and rodents. They fly with the neck outstretched, like most other storks, but unlike herons which retract their neck in flight.

The migratory species like the white stork and the

Bosphorus
on migration.

Species

Extant species

The genus contains eight extant species:[5]

Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Ciconia abdimii Abdim's stork Widespread in open habitats of Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Yemen. Breeds in northern half of range and spends non-breeding period in southern half
Ciconia episcopus Asian woolly-necked stork Southern Asia, from Pakistan to Indonesia and the Philippines
Ciconia stormi Storm's stork
Thai-Malay Peninsula
Ciconia nigra Black stork Breeds from Eastern Asia (Siberia and northern China) west to Central and Southern Europe. Winters in South, Southeast and East Asia, and in tropical Africa. A resident (non-migratory) population in southern Africa
Ciconia maguari Maguari stork Widespread in open wetland habitats in northern, central and southern South America
Ciconia microscelis African woolly-necked stork tropical Africa
Ciconia ciconia White stork Breeds in Europe to central Asia, and in northern Africa. Winters in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Ciconia boyciana Oriental stork Breeds in Russian Far East and northeast China. Winters in Japan, Korean Peninsula, east-central and southeast China, and Taiwan

Fossils

The

fossil record of the genus is extensive, indicating that Ciconia storks were once more widespread than they are today. Although the known material tends to suggest that the genus evolved around the Atlantic, possibly in western Europe or Africa, the comparative lack of fossil sites in Asia makes this assumption not well-founded presently. All that can be said is that by the Early Pliocene, Ciconia was widespread at least all over the Northern Hemisphere
.

Fossil members of the genus include:

  • Ciconia louisebolesae (Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia)
  • ?Ciconia minor (Early Miocene of Rusinga Island, Kenya)
  • ?Ciconia sarmatica (Late Miocene of Credinţa, Romania)
  • ?Ciconia gaudryi (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Pikermi, Greece)
  • Ciconia sp. 1 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, the United States)
  • Ciconia sp. 2 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, the United States)
  • ?Ciconia kahli (Early Pliocene of South Africa)
  • Ciconia lucida (Mongolian stork), (Middle Pliocene of Mongolia)
  • Ciconia maltha (asphalt stork or La Brea stork), (Late Pliocene – Late Pleistocene of the western and southern United States, Cuba and Bolivia)
  • Ciconia stehlini (Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of Hungary) – may belong to extant species
  • Ciconia nana (Australian stork) – (Early to Middle Pliocene, Late Pleistocene of Australia) – formerly Xenorhynchus[6]
  • Ciconia sp. (Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene of Las Breas de San Felipe, Cuba)[7]

A

subfossil was initially believed to be from a stork, it is today assigned to the Réunion ibis
(Threskiornis solitarius) which is quite similar to storks osteologically and was not yet described when the bone was discovered (Cowles, 1994).

References

  1. ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 48, Vol. 5, p. 361.
  2. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 247.
  3. ISBN 0-19-910205-8
    .
  4. ISBN 0-304-52257-0
    .
  5. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Storks, ibis, herons". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  6. ^ "Boles. W 2005 A Review of the Australian Fossil Storks of the Genus Ciconia (Aves: Ciconiidae), With the Description of a New Species" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  7. S2CID 86512215
    .
  8. JSTOR 1369460
    .

Further reading

External links

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