Mycteria Storks

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Mycteria Storks

Mycteria is a genus of large tropical storks with representatives in the Americas, east Africa and southern and southeastern Asia. Two species have "ibis" in their scientific or old common names, but they are not related to these birds and simply look more similar to an ibis than do other storks.

These storks walk slowly and steadily in shallow open wetlands seeking their prey, which, like that of most of their relatives, consists of fish, frogs and large insects

In this genus there are 4 species: Mycteria cinerea (milky stork), Mycteria ibis (Yellow-billed Stork), Mycteria leucocephala (Painted Stork) and Mycteria americana (wood stork).