---
title: "Marabou Stork"
description: "Leptoptilos crumenifer — Uccelli. The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae native to sub-Saharan Africa."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/marabou-stork
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Marabou Stork

> Leptoptilos crumenifer — Uccelli. The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae native to  sub-Saharan Africa.

- Scientific name: *Leptoptilos crumenifer*
- Category: `birds` (Uccelli)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Laghi e fiumi), `urban` (Città e giardini), `savanna` (Savana)
- iNaturalist observations: 7879
- Wikidata: [Q512737](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q512737)
- iNaturalist taxon: [201031](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/201031)

## Names

- en: Marabou Stork
- de: Marabu
- es: Marabú africano
- fr: Marabout d'Afrique
- nl: Afrikaanse maraboe
- pt: Marabu
- pl: Marabut afrykański

## Countries with the most observations

KE (1724), TZ (1341), ZA (1190), UG (650), BW (597), ET (348), NA (314), ZW (296), ZM (229), MW (79), MZ (74), BJ (55)

## Summary

The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae native to  sub-Saharan Africa. It breeds in both wet and arid habitats, often near human habitation, especially landfill sites. It is sometimes called the "undertaker bird" due to its shape from behind: cloak-like wings and back, skinny white legs, and sometimes a large white mass of "hair". It has often been credited with the largest wingspan of any land bird, with an average of 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) and some recorded examples of up to 3.2 metres (10 ft).

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_stork

## Photo

![Marabou Stork](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/marabou-stork/medium.jpg)

Photo: Ben Keen · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193007295

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/marabou-stork?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).