Storm's Stork

About the Storm's Stork

Storm's stork (Ciconia stormi) is a medium-sized stork species that occurs primarily in lowland tropical forests of Malaysia, Indonesia and southern Thailand. It is considered to be the rarest of all storks, and is estimated to number at most 1,750 wild individuals across its geographic range. The population has long been in decline and the primary cause is widely considered to be deforestation of its native habitat.

This stork was first described by Blasius in 1896, and named after the German sea captain Hugo Storm, a collector of zoological specimens in the East Indies. In Thailand, it is known as "nok kra su um", which refers to the birds' fishing procedure by stalking along the bank of a stream in dense forest.

This species is very similar and closely related to the woolly-necked stork whose range partially overlaps with that of Storm's stork. Although Storm's stork has long been considered a separate species, it has also been previously treated as a subspecies of the woolly-necked stork in the more recent past. However, Storm's stork is characterised by a yellowish-orange facial skin patch around the eye that is absent in the woolly-necked stork... Wikipedia →