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Painted stork
जांघिल (janghil)
A large white stork with black wing bars, a pink wash across the lower back and a heavy yellow bill curved at the tip.
👀 How to recognise it
Feeds by sweeping a half-open bill through shallow water. Nests in noisy colonies in big waterside trees, dozens of nests to a tree.
Where to see it
Delhi
The breeding colony inside the Delhi Zoo is wild: the birds come in from outside to nest on the island trees, and have done so for decades.
Okhla Bird Sanctuary · National Zoological Park (Delhi Zoo) (in season)
Govardhan
Painted storks breed in colonies in big trees over water and need shallow fishing ground within reach. The tanks and irrigated plots of the Govardhan circuit provide that, and the flocks are one of the clearer signs that the sacred ponds are still doing ecological work.
Kusum Sarovar (in season) · Chandra Sarovar & Surdas Kuti, Parasoli (in season)
Mysore
Ranganathittu's islets were formed by a dam built across the Kaveri in the 1640s; the ornithologist Salim Ali persuaded the Mysore ruler to protect them, and the sanctuary was declared in 1940.
Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary
Agra
At Keoladeo the storks nest mainly in desi babool (Acacia nilotica): its sturdy branches carry their bulky nests and its thorns keep predators off. Nesting runs from September to December, and the spread of invasive Prosopis juliflora is the main threat to those trees.
Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bharatpur) · Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary (Keetham Lake)
Ajmer
Ana Sagar was dammed in the twelfth century and has been an important wintering stop on the migration route through central Rajasthan ever since it filled; the painted storks that fish in front of the marble pavilions are one sign of it.
Ana Sagar Lake (often) · Foy Sagar Lake (Varun Sagar)
Hyderabad
Ameenpur was notified in November 2016 as the first water body in India to be declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site, and the first such site in an urban area. Around 170 bird species have been recorded there.
Ameenpur Lake (in season) · Osman Sagar (Gandipet Lake) (in season) · Hussain Sagar Lake
Pune
Several Indian villages protect their stork colonies by custom rather than by law, and the birds nest year after year in the same trees.
Pashan Lake (in season) · Khadakwasla Dam (in season)
Ujjain
Several Indian villages protect their stork colonies by custom rather than by law, and the birds nest year after year in the same trees.
Undasa Lake (in season) · Rudra Sagar Lake (in season) · Vishnu Sagar Lake (in season)