The saddle-billed stork is a striking waterbird that was once common and widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. However, recent declines and extinctions in certain areas have led to its conservation status being uplisted from least concern to near threatened. Habitat loss and poaching have contributed to these declines. However, the full extent of their decline is not known, as there is limited information on their distribution and population size across most of their range.
Interesting Facts
The saddle-billed stork is a large, black-and-white waterbird with a distinctive red and black beak and a yellow “saddle” on top. Females have yellow eyes, while males have dark brown eyes and, if you look closely, two tiny yellow wattles on either side of their beak.
A Symbol of Spirituality
This iconic bird has been a symbol of spirituality since ancient times. It features in Egyptian hieroglyphs, where it has a strong religious meaning as the ba bird, representing several concepts related to the divine, the soul, and death (1).
Hunting Behaviour
They can be found in wetlands and in open habitats close to rivers, dams, and lakes (rivers, lakes, and dams). They wade through the water on their long legs, hunting for fish and other water creatures, insects, and any small mammals or reptiles they can catch. With their large beak, they can feel around for prey in the water and vegetation, snatch or impale prey, and then swallow them whole.
Powerful flyers
While they spend most of their time wading through water, their large wings allow them to fly vast distances. Immature birds disperse widely after leaving their nests. Adults do not migrate regularly, but they can move large distances to follow resources during droughts or floods.
Reproduction
Saddle-billed storks mate for life. During courtship displays, both the male and female clatter their beaks, stretch their wings and bend their necks. They build large platform nests in trees near the water, where the female will lay one to five eggs. Their breeding season is March – July. The male and female will share incubation and chick-rearing duties.
Conservation Status
The saddle-billed stork has a wide distribution and was previously considered common. It was only recently (2024) that they were uplisted from least concern to near threatened (2). They have displayed sharp declines in numbers in most of their range. The bird is now extinct in several West African countries, and in many regions, such as central Africa, their population size is unknown. The greatest proportion of their population is in eastern Africa, with a sizeable number in southern Africa. Throughout their range, they are mostly restricted to protected areas.
Threats
Saddle-billed storks are threatened by the unsustainable removal of birds and eggs from the wild for food, cultural use, trophies, skins and the pet trade (2). They are also vulnerable to habitat loss from agriculture and other developments, changes in water levels from dam construction or irrigation, water pollution, and changes in rainfall patterns.
Conservation projects
The Waza-Logone Floodplain Rehabilitation Project, Cameroon
Saddle-billed storks, like other waterbirds, are dependent on water quality and quantity. The Waza-Logone floodplain was severely affected by the construction of the Maga Dam in 1979. Reduced water levels meant that many waterbirds left the area in search of a better home.
In 1994, the Cameroon Government, the IUCN, and other organisations opened a waterway from the dam to the floodplains. The reflooding increased water levels, expanded the wetland area, rehabilitated the vegetation, and boosted waterbird populations (3). Specifically, the saddle-billed stork population increased from 17 individuals in 1994 to 77 in 1999.
The drastic impact of dam construction and subsequent reflooding on waterbird numbers highlights the importance of protecting water sources and their surrounding catchment areas. The protection of important habitats should be prioritised when assessing development applications in catchment areas.
More Conservation Needed
To accurately assess the conservation status and needs of saddle-billed stork, their populations need to be thoroughly counted and monitored, especially in eastern Africa, which represents the stronghold of the species, and in central Africa, where their numbers (and presence) are unknown. Only the Okavango delta population has regular, long-term population data, thanks to citizen science (4).
Conclusion
The survival of the saddle-billed stork is dependent on the conservation and protection of the freshwater habitats where they live. Habitats cannot be conserved in isolation; the effects of developments in catchment areas must also be considered. Increased efforts are needed to establish and monitor population sizes throughout their distribution.
References
- Janák J. 2014. Saddle-billed stork (ba-bird). In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles.
- BirdLife International. 2025. Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T22697706A224821959
- Scholte P. 2006. Waterbird recovery in Waza-Logone (Cameroon), resulting from increased rainfall, floodplain rehabilitation and colony protection. Ardea 94(1): 109–125.
- Francis R, Bino G, Inman V, Brandis K, Kingsford RT. 2021. The Okavango Delta’s waterbirds – Trends and threatening processes. Global Ecology Conservation 30:e01763
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Can you identify the eight storks of Africa?
EcoTraining brings you another episode in our Birds of the Bush series. We’ll tell you about the bush birds YOU want to see each month. We joined EcoTraining Instructor Duncan McKenzie to talk about the storks of South Africa. Storks are large wading birds known for their long necks, legs, and stout bills. We are fortunate to have eight species of these unique birds in South Africa. Two species, the saddle-billed stork and the Yellow-billed Stork, are considered endangered. Despite the Yellow-billed Stork being a relatively common sight at wetlands across much of the region, it currently breeds at only a single site, making it critically endangered.
