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African Openbill (Anastomus lamelligerus)

African Openbill
Photo: Bernard Gagnon via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 — free for commercial reuse.

About the African Openbill

The African openbill (Anastomus lamelligerus) is a species of stork from the family Ciconiidae. It is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa and western regions of Madagascar. This species is considered common to locally abundant across its range, although it has a patchy distribution. Some experts consider there to be two sub-species, A. l. lamelligerus distributed on the continent and A. l. madagascariensis living on the island of Madagascar. Scientists distinguish between the two sub-species due to the more pronounced longitudinal ridges on the bills of adult A. l. madagascariensis. The Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans) found in Asia is the African openbill's closest relative. The two species share the same notably large bill of a peculiar shape that gives them their name.

Source: African openbill on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
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No audio on this page yet

We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 2 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.

As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.

Listed as recorded in Zambia in the xeno-canto catalogue.