130. Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)

Black Storks are the shy and retiring cousins of White Storks - they are not nearly as approachable, nesting deep in large forests with swampy areas, marshes and rivers. They are not found in western Europe as much as White Storks, being distributed more through central Europe. Although when seen clearly they are easily distinguished from White Storks, it can be harder to tell them apart in flight at a distance - the much smaller amount of white on the underwing of the Black Stork can be a good clue. Juvenile Black Storks are are dull greenish-black with grey-green legs.

Black Stork, ©Sergey Pisarevskiy, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Black Stork sketch.

Just a pencil drawing this time, as I did it on the train on Sunday on my way back from Bath (I went to a surprise baby shower for my cousin, hahar!), didn't think the watercolours would work on the train although I did very briefly consider using the bottle of sparkly red nail polish I had with me. I copied from a black and white printout of the photo (I normally work straight from the image on screen) and on that, the red around the eye came out virtually the same tone as the surrounding plumage - so there's not really any sign of it on my drawing! Funny how it would have come out looking quite different if I had worked from a colour image.