Jabiru

The jabiru is the tallest flying bird in South and Central America, a huge white stork with a bare black head and neck and a bright red, stretchy band of bare skin at the base of the neck. The massive black bill, 25–35cm long, is broad and slightly upturned. Males and females look alike, but males are about a quarter larger, among the biggest size differences of any stork. Clumsy-looking on the ground, it is a strong, graceful flier with the second-largest wingspan of any South American land bird after the Andean condor (Wikipedia, general species account).

Jabirus feed by wading in shallow water with the bill held open at an angle, snapping it shut on prey found by touch. They take fish mostly 8–20cm long, along with frogs, snakes, snails and insects, and clear up fish dying in drying pools. Pairs, often together year-round, build huge stick nests at the top of tall trees around August–September and reuse and enlarge them every year. The chicks fledge at about 110 days but stay with their parents for about three more months, so pairs often cannot breed every year (Wikipedia, general species account).

The jabiru is most common in the Pantanal and the eastern Chaco, and is widespread but nowhere abundant (Wikipedia, general species account). On this guide it is a target species of the Pampas del Yacuma, Barba Azul and the Beni savannas, and the Bolivian Pantanal.