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Résumé :
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Ageing of White Stork has been widely neglected by field identification guides. Most of them only describe adult birds, while some others give information about the ageing of juveniles. However, only a few provide a full treatment of the ageing criteria of White Stork, despite the fact that they have been known for a while (e.g. Cramp & Simmons 1977, Van den Bossche & Jadoul 1998). In this paper ageing of White Stork is summarized, based mainly on bare parts, flight feathers and the colour of the inner median upperwing coverts. Bill and legs are bright red in adult, brownish and/or dull red dish in juvenile and intermediate in 2nd-cy birds. Inner median upperwing coverts are black in juvenile, totally white in adult and white spotted black in most 2nd-cy birds. In juveniles, all remiges are identical, black (with outer web of inner primaries and secondaries tinged grey), while there are two generations of flight feathers in 2nd-cy birds, some worn brownish juvenile remiges and a few fresh black adult remiges (some with a grey tinge on outer web); in the adult, remiges are even more heterogenous with up to there generations of feathers at the same time : pale brown oldest remiges (very abraded), dull black more recent ones (less worn) and fresh black adult remiges (some with grey tinge on outer web.
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