Fourth sighting of rare black stork
Romano da CostaA bird which is rarely seen in Jersey has been spotted over the east of the island.
Sightings of the black stork (Ciconia nigra), a rare visitor to Britain, have been recorded only four times in the island.
The British Trust for Ornithology says black storks breed mainly in eastern Europe and Spain and travel to southern Africa for the winter.
They feed in grassland and wetlands but also make use of fields and will eat anything they catch, from insects and fish to reptiles and small mammals.
Jersey Birds said the stork was seen at Grouville Marsh and over Grouville Hill on Monday but had not been spotted since.
The sighting comes 16 years after a black stork fell to the ground in Jersey in 2010.
The young male was found with a broken wing in Mourier Valley in and cared for by a local vet but was too weak for release to the wild so taken to Edinburgh zoo for rehabilitation. Colin Oulton, of Edinburgh Zoo, said the stork was the first that had been spotted in Jersey in 20 years.
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