Birdblog #2: Marabou Stork

The ugliest of all the birds, the Marabou Stork is a disgusting embodiment of how nature doesn't always produce sweet little Disney characters who charm and beguile. This grotesque abomination is notable for several physical features. One, its rigid, pointed beak, is rattled sombrely, and is usually to be found pecking at piles of rubbish in sub-Saharan towns and cities, including those at Mbarara Hospital.

Pendulous air sac

The storks also possess two pinkish-red air sacs which they inflate in a futile effort to appear attractive. The front sac hangs below its chin like the pendulous, excess skin of someone who has previously had gastric-band obesity surgery.

Marabou Stork nightmare

The photograph also suggests that the bird appears to have white legs, but this is not the case.

The defining symbol of the Marabou's rankness is that it can't even be bothered to defaecate with dignity - the colour comes from the constant torrent of excrement that spews forth from its horrid bowels.

If the Marabou Stork were a celebrity, it would be:
Jocelyn Wildenstein.