new delhi as the wetlands of delhi and surrounding areas have begun to echo with chirps quacks and whistles of the winged visitors flying here from the far north and central asia the nesting of a voiceless and solitary resident bird with three chicks has taken birders by surprise and awewhile conservationists cant stop worrying about degrading habitats the nesting of this rare and terrestrial bird species blacknecked stork at sultanpur wildlife sanctuary has emerged as a silver lining on the future of avifauna in the regionthe largest stork of the region flaunts a large black beak with glossy greenishblack head tail and bars on the wings the greenishblue neck and coralred legs make its appearance strikingly distinct it is very selective when it comes to building a nest or breeding so spotting a nest with chicks is extremely rarethe female with yellow eyes was seen with three chicks in a nest in a tree this solitary bird prefers an undisturbed habitat so one tree often has only one nest as they dont live in colonies earlier some nests were spotted in different habitats but they were abandoned perhaps due to breach of peace there are hardly a dozen breeding pairs of this species in this region said birder kb singh who spotted and clicked the storks nest and chicks along with fellow birder reginold thankappaas the carnivore requires lots of food and is known to live for up to 40 years in captivity the storks nest hints at a healthy habitat and the presence of a good prey basethis stork is a very unusual species and purely carnivorous terrestrial bird the entire haryana and ncr wont have more than 20 breeding pairs so this sighting is rare sultanpur used to have such breeding pairs in the 1990s but they left for the countryside this pair might have returned due to development work in the countryside its very difficult to find its nest the bird has sight fidelity which means they often nest on a tree used earlier said ks gopi sundar scientist at nature conservation foundation and cochair of the iucn stork ibis and spoonbill specialist groupsundar added that since the chicks alone consume over 800 grams of meat the storks return to sultanpur must be a sign of a healthy prey base the bird is carnivorous and consumes a lot of meat especially fish as soon as the chicks become over two months old they consume 800 grams to 1kg of food the adults can eat even more he saideminent birder and author bikram grewal said the bird was notorious and famous as a bully its a very good sighting from the conservation and habitats perspective the blacknecked stork is becoming extremely rare and highly endangered its a strange species standalone and a bully and it disturbs other smaller birds a lot it often kills other small water birds like egret jacana and others he added