Neil Calbrade

The black counterpart of the reknown White Stork, typically a woodland bird breeding in open forests with pristine rivers and streams. Frequents all kinds of wetlands outside the breeding territory. Breeds across the Palearctic, from Spain to the Pacific coast of Russia and northern China. Winters in the Sahel, in India and South-East Asia. Also sedentary and dispersive populations in Austral Africa.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		20200-32400,25400
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Black Stork

Ringing data document two major flyways for the black storks, reaching Africa either by the straits of Gibraltar along the western flyway, of by the Bosphorus and the Middle East along the eastern flyway. A potential central flyway, by Italy, is not well supported by ring recoveries, though could lead to a wintering area in Cameroon. The western flyway ends in the West Sahelian region, the eastern flyway to the East Sahelian region down to Tanzania. Birds of East Europe use mainly the eastern flyway, birds from West and South-West Europe use the western flyway, birds from North and Central Europe use either (Bobek et al. 2008).

Recoveries by Condition for Black Stork

There is a complete shift from 5% of live re-encounters before 1960 (so mainly dead recoveries) to over 90% of live re-encounters after 1990, largely due to the development of numerous colour ringing schemes of this iconic species.

Annual Movements for Black Stork

Tagged Iberian black storks began autumn migration between mid-September and beginning-October; most flew to the Sahel without stopovers in 2–3 weeks (Cano et al. 2013). The migration of tracked French and German birds to their Sahelian wintering grounds lasted on average 27 days, and provided a description of the routes (Chevallier et al. 2010). During autumn migration, storks in Europe maintained a direct SSW course that was initiated before crossing the Eastern Massif Central in France. In Africa, the storks first flew south across the Moroccan Atlas. At the western edge of Algeria, the storks separated and continued in different directions (SSE and SSW) depending on their wintering destination (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger). During spring migration, each stork in Africa followed a NW flight path. Black storks reached the Strait of Gibraltar, flew NNE or NE to attain the mid-west of Spain, then continued either northward or NNE.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Black Stork

Birds are almost all back on the breeding grounds by early April. Birds from Central and East Europe are start to move in July, though main recovery flow in the South-West occur from mid-August to the end of September. The same hold true for Eastern birds in the Middle East, though there are recoveries in northern Israel during all winter months. The first recoveries in the Sahel are from the end of September, the last during the first decade of April. Movements are also noted in the Sahel during the winter (Jiguet et al. 2010). There are some winter recoveries in Spain and France, mirroring the recent increase of wintering numbers in South-West Europe in the recent decades.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Bobek, M., Hampl, R., Peške, L., Pojer, F., Šimek, J., Bureš, S.2008 . African Odyssey project – satellite tracking of black storks Ciconia nigra breeding at a migratory divide. Journal of Avian Biology 39 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04285.x) : 500–506
Cano L.S., Franco, C., Doval, G., Torés, A., Carbonell, I.,Tellería, J.L.2013 . Post-Breeding Movements of Iberian Black Storks Ciconia nigra as Revealed by Satellite Tracking. Ardeola 60 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.60.1.2012.133) : 133–142
Chevallier, D., Handrich, Y., Georges, J.-Y., Baillon, F., Brossault, P., Aurouet, A., Le Maho, Y., Massemin, S.2010 . Influence of weather conditions on the flight of migrating black storks. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 277 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0422)
Jiguet, F., Barbet-Massin, M. & Chevallier, D.2011 . Predictive distribution models applied to satellite tracks: modelling the western African winter range of European migrant Black Storks Ciconia nigra. Journal of Ornithology 152 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-010-0555-3) : 111–118

Back to Analysis