Firstever Breeding Record of Painted Stork along with Greater Adjutant Stork in the Flood Plains of Kosi River in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India

Abstract

Painted stork (Mycteria leucocephela) is a large resident wetland bird of stork family- Ciconidae and has been categorized as near threatened. A new nesting colony of wild Painted stork, breeding along with Lesser (Leptoptilos javanicus) and Greater Adjutant stork (Leptoptilos dubius) have been observed on the same nesting tree (Kadamb- Anthocephalus cadamba) at Bagritola village of Kadwa panchayat located on the flood plains of the Kosi river in district of Bhagalpur, Bihar, India. In October, 2015, a single nest and three Painted storks were observed (of which one bird was seen incubating) on a Kadamb tree in the village Bagritola. This breeding site was studied from October, 2015 to March, 2020 to observe the detailed nesting and breeding behaviors. From October, 2015 onwards a significant increase in the number of nests of Painted storks was recorded at the same breeding site and the storks adopted 2-5 separate but closely situated kadamb trees for nesting. In the month of September, 2017, two adjacent Kadamb trees were adopted by the Lesser and Greater Adjutant storks for nesting and they built two nests (one on each) Kadamb tree. In October, 2017, Painted storks also started to build their nest on the same trees which were already occupied by the Adjutant storks. From 2018 onwards, no nests of Lesser adjutant stork were observed and the Painted storks were found to breed along with Greater adjutant storks only, till the end of the study period i.e. March, 2020. Similar to the other two stork species, both the male and female Painted storks were sharing the process of nest building, incubation, nursing and guarding the chicks by rotation. Fragments of old branches of nearby trees as well as from abandoned nests were used for building the nests which were cushioned with the leaves. The Painted storks were successfully breeding along with the Greater adjutant storks on the same nesting trees peacefully without any obvious disturbances. The breeding season of Painted storks was observed to continue between October to March and their incubation period was estimated to range between 27-30 days. The breeding season of Lesser adjutant stork was observed to continue between mid-August to Feb whereas of Greater adjutant stork was observed between September to March with slight variation of 6-10 days in Bihar, India.