Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2025 | 17(3): 26750–26752

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8086.17.3.26750-26752

#8086 | Received 03 July 2022 | Final received 02 March 2025 | Finally accepted 04 March 2025

First record of Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala in Indonesia

Hasri Abdillah ¹, Iwan Febrianto ^{2 ,} Cipto Dwi Handono ³ , Fajar Shiddiq ⁴ , Febryansah Abdillah Harahap ⁵ & Muhammad Iqbal ⁶

¹ North Sumatra Birdwatcher, Medan, North Sumatra 20216, Indonesia.

^2–3 Yayasan Ekologi Satwa Liar Indonesia, Surabaya, East Java 60291, Indonesia.

^4–5 Biologi Pencinta Alam dan Studi Lingkungan Hidup, University of North Sumatra, North Sumatra 20155, Indonesia.

⁶ Department of Biology, Universitas Indo Global Mandiri, Palembang, Sumatera Selatan 30129, Indonesia.

¹ hasriabdi@gmail.com (corresponding author), ² shorebird.man@gmail.com, ³ ciptodwihandono@gmail.com,

⁴ fajarshiddiq161099@gmail.com, ⁵ febriansahfebri2001@gmail.com, ⁶ miqbal@uigm.ac.id

Editor: H. Byju, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Date of publication: 26 March 2025 (online & print)

Citation: Abdillah, H., I. Febrianto, C.D. Handono, F. Shiddiq, F.A. Harahap & M. Iqbal (2025). First record of Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala in Indonesia. Journal of Threatened Taxa 17(3): 26750–26752. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8086.17.3.26750-26752

Copyright: © Kader & Gopal 2025. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: East Asian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) , Zoo Miami Foundation through Kushlan Wading Birds Grant, Universitas Indo Global Mandiri.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: We thank East Asian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) who funded waterbirds survey in east coastal zone of North Sumatra province, Indonesia. Muhammad Iqbal thank Universitas Indo Global Mandiri, and Zoo Miami Foundation through Kushlan Wading Birds Grant for funding study on reassesment of Milky Stork status in Sumatra 2022.

Storks are among the large “wading’ birds, species that characteristically feed while walking about in shallow wetlands (Hancock et al. 1992) which are with long necks, bills, and legs; and they thus represent the most distinctive families (Elliott 1992). Twenty species are recognized, although there is still dispute over the taxonomic status of a few (del Hoyo & Collar 2014). Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala is one of the most abundant Asian storks, ranging from Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, and southeastern Asian countries (Elliott 1992; Hancock et al. 1992; BirdLife International 2023). This stork is recently listed as ‘Least Concern’ because it is thought to be a wide range that extends from southern Asia through to southeastern Asia, with a population trend that seems to be rising (BirdLife International 2023). M. leucocephala has been regularly recorded from Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson 2012; Puan et al. 2020), but it has not been reported from the Indonesian archipelago (MacKinnon & Phillipps 1993; Eaton et al. 2021). Here, we report an observation of M. leucocephala from northern Sumatra, the country’s first record for Indonesia.

On the afternoon (approximately 1600 h) of 19 January 2022, while observing waterbirds in the coastal zone of North Sumatra province, three of us (HA, FS, FAH) observed an individual Painted Stork. The site where this species was found is mangrove forest and mudflat habitat in Pematang Lalang village (3.7161 ⁰N, 98.8122 ⁰E), Percut Sei Tuan subdistrict, Deli Serdang district, North Sumatra province, Indonesia (Figure 1), along with 11 Milky Storks Mycteria cinerea. The bird is very similar to M. cinerea by size, behaviour, and morphological characteristics (white large stork with black-and-white markings on wings). Both M. leucocephala and M. cinerea share a very large size of waterbird, with white plumage, black wing markings, a long bill with slightly decurved, whitish neck & mantle, facial red skin, a bill bright yellow, and long legs (Image 1). We followed appropriate field guides (Sonobe & Usui 1993; Robson 2011; Puan et al. 2020) for identification. M. leucocephala has black colour markings in wing coverts; and pink flush colour in scapulars, secondaries andwing coverts. These characters are not present in M. cinerea, which have entirely white wing coverts.

In addition, three Painted Storks were documented on 31 January 2025 in Percut, northern Sumatra (eBird 2025). The site is very close to the previous observation of M. leucocephala in 2022. This recent record suggests M. leucocephala is a recently regular visitor in northern Sumatra.

The coastal zone of North Sumatra province is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) (Holmes & Rombang 2001; Birdlife International 2022). The nearest areas where M. leucocephala is found are Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson 2012; Puan et al. 2020). In Peninsular Malaysia, M. leucocephala has been known as a migrant in low numbers to Perlis and Kedah (including Pulau Langkawi), vagrant to Kuala Lumpur, recently feral and locally common resident with free-flying populations successfully bred at National Zoo in Selangor, free-flying regularly disperses to feed in wetlands out of the zoo and frequent at the Kuala Lumpur and Putra Jaya wetlands where a satellite breeding colony has formed (Wells 1999; Jeyarajasingam & Pearson 2012). In Singapore, the birds are most likely from the Mandai Zoo which was introduced in 1987, free fly to Johor Bahru of Malaysia to feed in the wetlands (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson 2012). The distance between Pematang Lalang village of northern Sumatra and with Painted Stork found in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore is about 250–500 km. The Pematang Lalang village of North Sumatra province is about c. 250 km to Kuala Lumpur, c. 500 km to Johor Bahru, and c. 500 km to Singapore. Considering the M. leucocephala in northern Sumatra from the Malay Peninsula or Singapore, it may be likely that the species also occurs in other suitable wetlands nearby in Sumatra for foraging.

Our record of M. leucocephala in northern Sumatra is part of a spate of new distribution records of vagrant migrant waterbirds in Sumatra. This appears most likely to relate to rapidly rising interest in waterbirds among local researchers and amateurs on the island in the last decade, as well as easier access to cameras with tele lenses for documentation (Abdillah & Iqbal 2012; Imansyah & Iqbal 2015; Putra et al. 2018). Due to its similarity with M. cinerea, it is possible this species was overlooked earlier in Sumatra in the past by birdwatchers or researchers. Based on this record, M. leucocephala needs special attention from birdwatchers in the future, particularly when a hybrid of this species with Milky Stork has been reported, both in the wild and the zoo (Baveja et al. 2019).

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