Use of the foraging area by captive bred oriental storks (Ciconia boyciana) in a closed semi natural paddy field

Rice paddy fields have been recognized as an alternative habitat for avian wetland foragers, and fish-rice farms havebecome a new tool in improving the abundance of aquatic animals. However, the use of the habitats by avian foragers,particularly by oriental storks (Ciconia boyciana), was not well understood. In the present study, we investigated how afish-rice farm influenced the abundance of aquatic animals and documented the foraging behavior of the two captivebred oriental storks in a closed semi-natural paddy field. Our results showed that the fish refuge pond (water depth 40cm) had a higher abundance of fish whereas the areas planted with rice (water depth 20 cm) had more tadpoles and someaquatic insects. The two captive bred oriental storks captured mostly fish and aquatic insects in the rice-planted area andmostly fish in the fish refuge pond. The two oriental storks had higher foraging success and spent more time for foragingin the rice-planted area than in the fish refuge pond. This result suggests that the oriental storks might prefer foraging inthe area with fish, aquatic insects, and amphibians under a greater success rate presumably due to shallow water depthin the paddy fields with a fish-rice farm.