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one from the nesting colony at Hlane NP, Swaziland

By the way a question: Is it possible to ID males and females?

This bird which I believe is a Juv Marabou Stork was feeding alongside other birds on the causeway over the Shingwedzi River in Feb this year.

This bird which I believe is a Juv Marabou Stork was feeding alongside other birds on the causeway over the Shingwedzi River in Feb this year.

That looks like an adult to me, great close ups! I think i may have asked this before, what set up are you using for your photography?!

Really RJ, I did initially think so but on reading my Sasol Third Edition, I saw that they said the Juv Marabou's head and neck was covered in sparse woolly down, which this ones is.

This particular pic was one of Jock's and she uses a Canon Powershot 10.

Elsa you are correct, the younger birds do have 'woolly' necks, I just feel that in large species, like these storks, a bird with a completely naked neck must be very old...just like it takes some raptors up to 5 years to change plumage....At most I would call this a sub-adult, but it definately doesnt seem to be as woolly as one would expect a immature. I think the colouration of the wings also has to do with the aging of these birds, the darker the wings and back, the younger, and the lighter blue/grey the older....But this I have not read further on, and there are meny contributing factors to the colouration of the ings, like amount of light, angle of feathers etc etc....

Samantha

Stop, stop!

Samantha, instead of starting a new one for your birds, please post your pix in the available thread that you will find in the index at the top of this page...

Hi,

Sorry I didn't know that there was already a page for Marabou Storks.

Samantha

Gee, I'm glad you "picked up" on my reply... There is a page for every bird you have posted so far. Before posting, always consult the index. You are very welcome to add on to those threads. I will ask one of the mods to merge you posts with the corresponding threads, so except for some dazzling e-maneuvers that a mod performs in his/her sleep, no harm done...

No harm done, I'll merge a bit later on today. I've been given the day off by order - Escom.