The Marabou Stork is a peculiar-looking bird. It has a bald head, two inflatable air sacs around the neck and with 10.5 feet it has the largest wingspan in the world, sharing the record with the Andean Condor! These birds can be found throughout most of tropical Africa, south of the Sahara desert. They adjust very well to human activity and this has actually benefited the species. Populations have increased in some areas. They are so large they need to eat more than 1.6 lbs of food a day. They get most of their food through scavenging and will eat anything that they can get their beaks on. They are attracted to grass fires and will march in front of the advancing fire grabbing animals that are fleeing. How unscrupulous is that? We saw one Marabou Stork flying overhead on our trip to The Gambia last year. It was a magnificent sight to see the large bird fly above us. Here are some pictures of this stork:
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