oriental stork

Latin: Ciconia boyciana

A large, white bird with black wing feathers and red legs. It closely resembles its European cousin but has red skin around its eye, with a whitish iris and black bill.

At one time, the Oriental stork could be found in Japan, China, Korea and Russia. It is now extinct in Japan and the Korean peninsula. There have been efforts to reintroduce the storks to the wild, but they were harshly impacted by the growth of the rice industry and the subsequent use of pesticides. There is a push for rice farmers to grow their plants organically so that the storks may breed and grow safely.