The Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) presents an unforgettable apparition. Its face is a calm and patient portrait of morbidity. When I first set eyes upon a flock of these birds on my first afternoon in Africa, I was reminded of the title of a book, Beauty Is A Wound. Nothing, in my opinion, describes it better.
This is an enormous bird, often seen in flocks perched atop thorny acacia trees. Nearly every creature in Africa appears exaggerated in size and the Marabou Stork is no exception. It has a thick, heavy bill that resembles something between a battle axe and a medieval agricultural implement. Its unfeathered head and neck are fleshy pink, blotched with leprous patches, wrinkled folds, and stray curly wisps of hairlike feathers. A goitre-like sac droops from its throat when it is satiated from a glut — this is the crop, which holds half-eaten and whole-swallowed meals to be digested at leisure.
Unlike most stork species (except for the two species of Adjutant storks), in flight the Marabou Stork tucks its head in like a heron and holds its long legs outstretched. These storks are strong fliers, helped by an impressive wingspan of 9-12 feet, rivalling that of the Andean Condor, which makes it among the broadest among land birds (the wingspans of albatrosses and other seafaring birds like pelicans exceed this measurement).
Marabou Storks are not partial to water. They are adapted to a variety of habitats where they hunt actively for locusts, fish, amphibians, birds, and small reptiles and mammals. More often than not, though, they are content to stand stock still and wait for mealtimes. This makes them opportunistic, not lazy as some anthropomorphic descriptions go. In the great grasslands of Africa, they soar alongside vultures to scavenge at large herbivore carcasses (which explains the naked head and neck).
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The word Marabou is thought to be derived from murabit or marabout, Arabic words for Islamic religious teacher. Something about their sage, calm appearance and their sombre colouration might have inspired the epithet.
As Africa urbanises and its ever-expanding cities dispose of their garbage in great putrid landfills, Marabou Storks have adapted to scavenging for offal and abattoir leftovers, a lot like their cousins, the Hargilas of Assam.
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