Social Structure
Although yellow-billed storks can be found in the company of other birds, they do not typically form large flocks.
Communication
Experts have compared their nesting calls to a squeaking hinge.
Behavior
Yellow-billed storks prefer wetland habitats, where they partially open their bills in the muddy waters while searching for food; sometimes they submerge their entire heads. They follow hippopotamus and crocodiles to capture potential prey that the larger animals have disturbed. When they are finished foraging, they bask on sandbanks with other wading birds such as herons and spoonbills.
Conservation
Least concern
Diet
Yellow-billed storks feed on frogs, small fish, and other aquatic animals.
Breeding
Monogamous pairs breed in colonies with herons and other water birds. A colony usually is established in a tree, often over water, and has from ten to twenty pairs, but some can have as many as fifty. The parents construct stick platforms and incubate the eggs for around a month. Ravenous chicks are fed by both parents and fledge around 55 days after they hatch.
Friends & Foes
Yellow-billed storks sometimes nest in towns, indicating they do not fear humans. They can become the prey of Nile crocodiles, and African fish eagles will raid their nests for eggs.
Population in Kenya
Yellow-billed storks are found throughout much of Kenya.
Range & Habitat
Yellow-billed storks live in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
They prefer wetland habitats such as swamps, estuaries, riverbanks, rice paddies, lagoons, and mudflats. They are sometimes also found in savanna woodland.