Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus
Silhouette: Mike Keesey (vectorization) and Vaibhavcho (photography) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) is a tall, long-necked wading bird in the stork family. It is a resident species across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia with a disjunct population in Australia. It lives in wetland habitats and near fields of certain crops such as rice and wheat where it forages for a wide range of animal prey. Adult birds of both sexes have a heavy bill and are patterned in white and irridescent blacks, but the sexes differ in the colour of the iris with females sporting yellow irises and males having dark-coloured irises. In Australia, it is known as a jabiru, although that name also refers to a stork species found in the Americas. It is one of the few storks that are strongly territorial when feeding and breeding.
First described by John Latham as Mycteria asiatica, this species was later placed in the now-defunct genus Xenorhynchus based on morphology. Based on behavioural similarities, M. Philip Kahl suggested the placement of the species in the genus Ephippiorhynchus, which then included a single species, the saddle-billed stork. This placement of both the black-necked stork and saddle-billed stork in... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kakadu National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisbane | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | New Delhi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Territory Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Nehru Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Healesville Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | National Zoo of Malaysia | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 6 | Taronga Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Melbourne Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Perth Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Gorge Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 13 | Hunter Valley Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 14 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 15 | Johor Zoo | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 16 | Caversham Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 17 | Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Prani Udyan | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas | 🇦🇺 Australia |
No species of the same family or order lives in Kakadu National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Black-necked Stork sighting in Kakadu National Park on a given day, based on 781 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 36th most-seen of the 186 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Black-necked Stork in Kakadu National Park on a given day, against about 20% in January, the lowest month. That is one of Kakadu National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 350 mm in January. February has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-necked Stork sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Black-necked Stork sightings, Kakadu National Park ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Kaziranga National Park (India, about 70%) and Keoladeo National Park (India, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-necked Stork is recorded against all the birds logged in Kakadu National Park (781 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
