A message about marabou. Marabou is a very interesting and different bird. Undeservedly gained notoriety
Even birds have freedom of choice. Here is the African marabou (lat. Leptoptilos crumeniferus) - a bird, by the way, from the stork family, does not carry children, but prefers to lead the lifestyle of a vulture, which is reflected in its appearance.
Marabou have no feathers on their head and neck, which makes it much easier to keep them clean. And since he often has to rummage through garbage or tear apart the carcasses of dead animals, feathers would only get in the way, providing an ideal environment for the growth of bacteria.
For such operations, a strong beak is needed, so the long and thin stork beak has turned into a powerful club, with which the marabou is not averse to beating insolent competitors on occasion.
Even large predators are afraid of the blows of this bird, and jackals and vultures yield prey to it without a fight at all. However, there is another explanation for this compliance: the marabou can deftly peel the skin off a fresh corpse, after which it is much easier for scavengers to deal with its remains.
The marabou searches for food like a real vulture - soars high in the sky, looking to see if vultures or kites have gathered somewhere to snack on something tasty?
Every day this bird, which weighs 6-9 kg, requires at least a kilogram of food. A hungry marabou scatters its rivals in a second and greedily pounces on food.
It's pretty large bird- her height is about one and a half meters, and her wing length is more than 70 cm. Although she does not make a special impression due to her peculiar stoop and the senile fluff on her head.
In the sky it looks more graceful, despite the fact that it does not stretch its neck during flight, like a stork, but keeps it curved, like a vulture - perhaps this is easier to hold its massive beak.
On earth, the throat sac, a long and bare growth on the neck, serves this purpose. For its strict black and white color and chased gait, the African marabou received another name - adjutant.
This bird is related to storks by its long thin legs and love for frogs, lizards and snakes, with which marabou sometimes try to diversify their diet. In addition to reptiles, its menu includes insects, rodents, chicks and eggs of other birds, and even small crocodiles. Very rarely, these birds also eat plant roots.
You can meet huge colonies of African marabou south of the Sahara on spacious savannas near bodies of water. The proximity of humans does not bother them at all, but on the contrary attracts them, because there is so much waste next to the two-legged inhabitants of the villages.
True, people used to exterminate marabou for the sake of beautiful tail feathers, which were used by Western women for hats, but, fortunately, this fashion has passed, and now the huge birds have no natural enemies.
Marabou nests match their inhabitants - large and spacious. Birds arrange them on trees, for example, on tall baobab trees. Sometimes they settle next to each other, establishing joint colonies.
Marabou live for a very long time - in captivity, the age of these birds can easily exceed the fourth decade. In the wild, marabou are widespread throughout Africa, so they are not in danger of extinction.
Marabou- a bird belonging to the stork family. It is divided into three types - Indian, African and Javanese marabou.
Despite the unattractive appearance, Arabs greatly revere this bird, considering it a symbol of wisdom.
This is what gave it the name “marabou” - from the word “mrabut” - the name given to a Muslim theologian.
Despite such a favorable description from the Muslim population, tourists usually associate an encounter with a marabou exclusively with negative emotions and foreshadow imminent failures.
The bird is considered evil, ugly and very treacherous. What can we say, the description is not the most attractive.
Externally description of marabou quite similar to their stork-like cousins. The bird's height reaches one and a half meters, its strong, powerful wingspan is two and a half meters.
The weight of such a bird may well exceed eight kilograms. The neck and legs of the marabou, as befits storks, are very long.
The coloring is usually two-tone - black top, white bottom, with a white “frill” at the base of the neck.
The head and neck are not covered with feathers, yellow or red, sometimes bordered with curly fluff, reminiscent of real hair, which can be seen very clearly on various photos of marabou stork.
The beak is very thick and massive, unlike other storks, the length of this weapon can reach up to thirty centimeters, which is very convenient for tearing pieces of meat from the flesh of its victim. In adults, a leathery sac can be observed on the chest.
Features and habitat
Main habitats marabou are Asia and North Africa (for example Tunisia). They prefer to settle near bodies of water in open areas, because they love wide open spaces and high humidity.
Character and lifestyle of marabou
Marabou are socialized birds. They live in large colonies. Don’t be afraid to be near people, quite the opposite - quite often these birds appear in villages, near landfills, expecting to find food there.
You can often observe how marabou calmly walk along the shore in search of food, or how they fly very high on their widely spread wings.
It is very simple to distinguish the flight of a marabou from the flight of other storks - the marabou does not stretch its neck, but bends it, as herons usually do.
In flight, marabou, by the way, are able to rise to a height of up to 4000 meters. Looking at this bird, you wouldn’t think that it is a real virtuoso in the art of controlling rising air currents.
Eating marabou
Marabou are birds of prey, but despite this, their diet is quite varied. They can eat carrion or hunt for food.
So for dinner, a marabou can treat itself to frogs, insects, young chicks, lizards, rodents, as well as crocodile eggs and cubs.
Due to their rather large size, marabou sometimes allow themselves to take food from smaller, albeit ferocious, predators, for example, eagles.
Reproduction and lifespan of marabou
During the heavy rainy season, marabou begin their mating season, and the chicks hatch at the time of drought.
This is due to the fact that without water, many animals die, and it’s time for a real feast for the marabou.
Typically, marabou build large nests, about a meter in diameter and up to twenty centimeters in height, from branches high in the trees, creating something like communal apartments - from three to seven pairs can live on one tree.
In terms of nesting, marabou are distinguished by enviable constancy. It often happens that a couple settles in an old nest, received “by inheritance”, only slightly renovating it.
There are cases where marabou nested from generation to generation in the same place for fifty years!
The marabou mating ritual is fundamentally different from our usual ideas. It is the females who compete for the attention of the male, who choose or reject the applicants.
After the pair takes place, they have to protect their own nest from uninvited guests.
Do it marabou likeness songs, but, frankly speaking, these birds are not at all melodic and sweet-voiced.
The sounds they make are most like mooing, howling or whistling. In all other cases, the only sound that can be heard from marabou is the threatening tapping of their powerful beak.
Each pair raises two to three chicks, which hatch after about thirty days of incubation.
By the way, both female and male marabou hatch eggs. They also jointly care for the younger generation until their children become completely independent.
Marabou chicks spend the first four months in the nest own life until full feathering, after which it is time to learn to fly.
And by the time the babies turn one year old, they will be completely independent and capable of creating their own offspring.
It is worth paying tribute to - despite the bad character and no less bad appearance, marabou birds make wonderful, very caring and reverent parents.
In nature, marabou has virtually no natural enemies, but the number of each species is this moment is unlikely to exceed 1000 due to the widespread destruction of their natural habitats.
Although marabou are disgusting to most people, these birds bring considerable benefits.
Rotting flesh left by predators, decomposing in the scorching sun, can cause infection and cause incredible harm to both humans and animals. It is the marabou (and, of course, the vultures) that in such a case act as an orderly.
Typically, vultures first tear apart the animal's carcass, tearing the skin. And the marabou, waiting for the right moment, snatches a tasty piece of dead flesh in one movement, after which they again move aside, waiting for the next opportune moment.
So, alternately, vultures and marabou eat all the meat, leaving only a bare skeleton in the sun. The gluttony of these birds guarantees high-quality ridding of their habitats from the rotting remains of various animals.
Undeservedly gained notoriety
“Another bird like the marabou, meeting which would be such a bad sign...
I haven’t seen it yet.”
AMONG the many birds that live in Africa, only a few enjoy such a bad reputation,
like a marabou. It has gained a reputation as an angry, ugly-looking and also treacherous bird.
Needless to say, the portrait is not the most attractive!
Do you like beautiful, graceful birds with melodious singing? Alas, marabou cannot boast of any of these advantages. Its head and neck are pinkish in color and devoid of feathers, and the whole appearance of the bird is somewhat pitiful and dull. In adults, there is a large fleshy protrusion on the throat, like a bag or a thick scarf. It cannot be said that it greatly adorns its owner. However, according to Dr Lyon Benoun, head of the ornithology department at the National Museums in Kenya, “If we don't like the bag, it doesn't mean the marabou doesn't like it.” But what is the purpose of this peculiar neck “decoration” is still unknown to anyone.
The marabou's diet also does not give it much nobility. Suffice it to say that this bird is a scavenger. And if she fails to find carrion “for the table,” she, as you know, is not averse to feasting on even other birds in order to satisfy her immoderate appetite. Is it any wonder that many people have a deep disgust for marabou?
However, despite its unsightly appearance and repulsive habits, the marabou is not without some undoubted advantages.
Giant of the bird world
Marabou is undoubtedly the largest representative of the stork family. An adult male can reach a height of one and a half meters and weigh more than eight kilograms. Females are usually slightly smaller in size. The wedge-shaped beak of the marabou, massive and powerful, sometimes reaching a length of more than 30 centimeters, is a convenient tool with which the bird tears pieces of meat from the carcass.
Despite its impressive size, the marabou is a true virtuoso in flight. With a wingspan of about 2.5 meters, it can soar better than many other birds. This “freak” flies quite gracefully: his head is slightly pulled into his shoulders, his long legs are extended along his body. Marabou skillfully uses rising currents of warm air and can rise to such a height that it sometimes becomes difficult to distinguish from the ground. Sometimes these birds fly to a height of 4,000 meters!
Caring parents
One cannot help but pay tribute to the zeal with which the marabou fulfill their parental duty. Raising chicks, I must admit, is not an easy task. First you need to arrange your “home.” Therefore, the male chooses a suitable place and begins building a nest. Later the female joins him. The bird's home, which is sometimes located at a height of up to 30 meters above the ground, is devoid of any architectural frills. About a meter wide, this simple, open nest is made from dry twigs, twigs and leaves. It happens that marabou hatch chicks in an old nest (which they inherited), having previously renovated it - “finishing” it with new branches. There are cases where marabou colonies nested in one place for 50 years in a row.
The construction of the nest is still in full swing, and meanwhile the male is already beginning to look for a mate. The “mating etiquette” of marabou is not the same as that of many other bird species: the male waits for one of the females to approach him. Several applicants demonstrate themselves, trying to attract the attention of the male, and are often rejected. But persistence is rewarded, and one of the females eventually wins his favor. During subsequent courtship, the male and female, with inflated pouches on their necks, try to scare off intruders by making special sounds reminiscent of mooing, howling or whistling. Marabou do not make any other sounds, except that they occasionally click their huge beak. The birds develop a strong mating union, which they, once again returning to the nest, reinforce with their favorite mutual greeting. At the same time, they throw back their heads, then lower them again, as if bowing, and click their beaks for a long time.
The construction of the nest is completed by the male and female through joint efforts. They also hatch eggs together. After a month, two or three white eggs hatch into small, pinkish, half-fledged chicks, which are cared for by both parents. The younger generation is surrounded by constant care. The chicks begin to be intensively fed with nutritious foods, such as fish. Marabou often visit the swamp, where frogs are found in abundance - another favorite “dish” on the bird’s menu. The chicks feed on pieces of food that the parents regurgitate into the nest. They grow slowly and only when they are four months old can they leave their “father’s house” and lead an independent life.
Bird nurses
Although people often have an aversion to marabou - due to the fact that they feed on carrion - these birds bring benefits, and considerable ones. Predators leave decaying remains of their prey on the plains of Africa. Rotting carrion can become a breeding ground for infections and cause harm to both humans and animals. And here marabou are always ready to do a good service - to act as orderlies. Together with others, very gluttonous birds of prey- vultures, they explore the plains in search of carrion. Having found something to eat, marabou usually wait until more energetic vultures tear apart the carcass of a dead animal with their curved beaks. Having waited for the right moment, the marabou quickly cuts its long beak, like a scalpel, into the corpse and tears out a piece of meat, and then waits a little further for the next opportunity to feast. After the vultures have had their fill, it’s the marabou’s turn. They greedily eat almost everything they can swallow, with the exception of bones, while hissing and fighting for every scrap of meat. Marabou easily swallow pieces of meat weighing up to 600 grams.
In recent years, marabou have been engaged in “sanitary supervision” not only in the wild. These birds are now almost not afraid of people and are turning into regulars of urban and rural landfills. And what is the result? Environment it gets cleaner. Even from Wastewater Marabou slaughterhouses diligently catch all the remaining “tidbits”. How tenacious these birds are can be seen from this example: in western Kenya, one marabou, looking for something to profit from near a slaughterhouse, managed to swallow a butcher’s knife. A few days later, the same knife - clean and shiny - was found in the same place. And the marabou that burped him went about his usual bird business as if nothing had happened. It seems that the “spicy dish” did not harm his body at all!
What does the future hold for marabou?
While the population of the African marabou's closest relative, the Indian great-billed stork, is declining, the marabou continues to thrive. In nature they have no enemies. In the past, the greatest threat to marabou was humans. People killed large individuals, and their soft tail feathers were plucked and used as decoration for women's headdresses. The book “Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills” says: “It is simply incomprehensible to the mind how such beautiful and graceful feathers, which decorate fans and various women’s jewelry, could belong to this huge, sad and repulsive-looking carrion lover.” These birds were lucky: over time, the uncontrolled extermination came to an end, and the number of marabou began to grow.
Bird with interesting name Marabou belongs to the stork family and lives, as a rule, in South Asia, as well as in the south of the Sahara. Translated from Arabic, “marabou” means “Muslim theologian.” It should be noted that representatives of the Islamic religion consider this bird to be wise.
Marabou (bird): description of the species
Representatives of this species reach almost one and a half meters in length; young birds have, so to speak, a variegated color - the lower part of the plumage is white, the upper part is black. The head is practically devoid of feathers; on the neck of adult individuals there is something like a leathery sac. This throat sac is connected to the nostrils, so it can fill with air and collapse while the marabou (bird) rests. The photo clearly demonstrates the creature’s bright, extraordinary appearance.
The lack of plumage on the head and neck of the bird is due to the peculiarities of its diet. The fact is that marabou feed on carrion, so nature prudently deprived them of such cover so that their feathers would not become dirty while eating. Like all representatives of the stork order, they have an expressive thick beak 30 cm long. With this “tool” the bird easily pierces the skin of an animal, and can also swallow bones whole. Marabou can also eat rodents, some amphibians and insects.
Reproduction
Marabou are birds that build large nests on treetops. The “house” of these feathered individuals can reach one meter in diameter. Birds carefully line it with leaves and tree branches from the inside. Individuals of this species live in pairs and take turns incubating eggs. As a rule, there are 2-3 eggs in the nest. The maturation process of the chick lasts about a month, after which it is born.
Nutrition
The main competitors of this species are vultures, but the latter cannot do without the help of marabou in cutting up a dead carcass. Only they can easily cope with opening a dead animal, thanks to their sharp beak.
They look out for their prey, rising high into the sky; sometimes they can rise 4500 meters from the ground. This seems surprising, taking into account the fact that the marabou is, to put it mildly, a heavy bird, but it achieves such a grandiose flight using rising air currents.
Habitat Features
As noted earlier, these birds live in warm countries where the climate is hot but quite humid. Marabou are birds that live in colonies. They usually locate their settlements next to pastures of various artiodactyl animals, as well as near farms and landfills.
These birds are not assigned the most aesthetic role, but someone has to remove the garbage, and, by the will of nature, they became such “orderlies.” Indeed, thanks to these birds, various epidemics are prevented, the outbreaks of which flare up here and there in these climatic conditions. These birds rarely leave their usual place of residence, however, if they have to move in search of a new “feeding” place, they do it together - the spectacle, it should be noted, is quite majestic and impressive.
Storks. Photo - Thinkstock
Meet Marabou (pictured on the right) and he's looking at you as if he's assessing your nutritional value. Contrary to popular belief, these huge birds do not only feed on carrion. They actively hunt, terrorize smaller birds, shake through garbage cans in cities looking for garbage, and are almost not afraid of people. Ornithologist, photographer and traveler Sergey Volkov spoke about the behavioral characteristics of the most terrible large storks on Earth.
I don’t know if the “Secret” group ever visited those parts, most likely not. But such a place exists in reality, and in itself it is remarkable in many ways. First of all, because this is one of the few bays located not on the coast, but in the inland areas, as well as the center of Muslim and Tuareg culture (in the past). True, after the Libyan events, instability came to the region and intensified Islamist elements tried to create new states, which is why the interior of the Sahara is now closed to tourism. ...But I’m not talking about global democratization, but about the work of Fomenko and Co...although not everyone in their right mind will be able to write such a text)))...but there is a mention of one bird: "...t handsome old maraboumeets Sarah Baraboo...." This today will be an informational reason to continue our conversation about marabou. Now African.
African marabou, Leptoptilos crumenifer.
This is the most close-up view among storks, and according to some parameters, among all birds capable of flight. Adult African marabou reach a height of 1.5 m and a weight of 8-9 kg. In terms of wingspan, they are only slightly inferior to the condor; a specimen has been described with a wingspan of as much as 4 m; in truth, it must be said that they are usually, of course, smaller.
Perhaps the photo shows the same specimen (photo from wiki)...
It is not surprising that with such wings, all three types of marabou are excellent soarers. In Africa, they can often be seen high in the sky along with vultures looking for carrion. It is interesting to note that in flight, unlike other storks, they keep their neck bent, like herons, perhaps due to the large size of the beak, it apparently outweighs it.
The appearance of African marabou is even more demonic than that of Asian species. The look of dark eyes is literally assessing your nutritional value! By the way, they are not particularly afraid of people, especially close settlements. I still remember a picture in Nairobi, where all the lanterns along the central avenue were decorated with 2-3 natural marabou decorations. In the evening or early in the morning, when all the people were still or already asleep in their apartments, it was time for the marabou to shake out all the trash cans for garbage.
Marabou at work in a landfill.
Uganda, photo by Oleg Chernyshov chernyshov_oleg
Marabou, like many other storks, nest in colonies in trees. Sometimes such colonies number up to several thousand pairs. I have never seen such large ones, but even a medium-sized colony of 2-3 dozen nests on the lake. Avasha in Ethiopia was a serious test for all senses without exception.... you wouldn’t wish it on your enemy!
The nests are not very large compared to the size of the birds. The literature describes nests that have been used for several decades in a row, but most often for a couple of years - after which the nesting trees require serious rehabilitation.
Chick in the nest. The female lays only 2-3 eggs, there are usually 1-2 chicks in the nest, it is not easy for parents to feed such monsters!
And then a marabou tank appears on the scene.
...The rest is clear! 
And by the way, they are very caring parents!