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African Openbill | Anastomus lamelligerus
Afrikaanse gaper | Picotenaza africano
A dark African stork with a striking gap between the mandibles, used to grip snails and mussels. In the region it is a vagrant, known only from the Arabian southwest, where a small group has stayed at the Wadi Jizan reservoir since 2021.
Voice
Mostly silent. At the colony a hoarse, rasping kwah-kwah and croaking; the pair clatters its bills softly.
No recording with a suitable Creative Commons licence is available for this species yet.
Identification
All dark blackish brown, in good light with green and purple gloss; on neck, mantle and breast the feathers end in narrow, glossy, horny strips that give the bird a shaggy, scaly look. The heavy grey to horn-coloured bill meets only at the tip, leaving a clear gap between the mandibles; in juveniles it is still largely absent. Lores grey, legs black to dark grey. Juveniles are duller brown, without gloss. In flight a compact, all-dark stork with outstretched neck; soars a lot in thermals.
Confusion species
Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) and Abdim's Stork (Ciconia abdimii) both have a white belly; Black Stork also has a red bill, Abdim's Stork a white lower back. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) is smaller, slimmer and has a long, thin, decurved bill. Juvenile openbills without the gap are the trickiest, but the heavy straight bill and all-dark underparts help.
Habitat
Shallow freshwater lakes, reservoirs, marshes, rice fields and flooded shores with plenty of apple snails and freshwater mussels. It feeds by stepping through shallow water or over floating vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In the region recorded only in southwestern Saudi Arabia: on 3 September 2021 a pair was found at the Wadi Jizan reservoir (Malaki Dam), the first record for the country. In summer 2022 up to 18 birds were present; since then one or two have lingered, with records into 2024. Given the location opposite the Horn of Africa, records in the Yemeni Tihama are to be expected. Beyond the region widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, from the Sahel to northeastern South Africa and Madagascar, with movements that follow the rains.
How and when to look
Search the shallow margins of the Wadi Jizan reservoir (Malaki Dam), where the birds were seen among herons and storks in the years after 2021. Check every dark stork in southwest Arabia for an all-dark belly.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened and common in Africa. The Arabian birds are wanderers from the East African populations; whether a lasting population will become established in southwest Arabia is still uncertain.
Scientific name
Anastomus lamelligerus | Temminck, 1823
Temminck described the species in 1823 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Anastomus was introduced in 1791 by Bonnaterre. Anastomus comes from the Greek anastomoō, 'to furnish with a mouth or opening' — for the gaping bill whose mandibles meet only at the tip. lamelligerus comes from the Latin lamella, 'small plate', and -gerus, 'bearing' — for the glossy, horny plates at the tips of the neck and belly feathers. The specimen the first description was based on came from Senegal.