I photographed this at the Guwahati Garbage Dump, Assam.
The Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) is a member of the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its genus includes the lesser adjutant of Asia and the marabou stork of Africa. Once found widely across southern Asia, mainly in India but extending east to Borneo, the greater adjutant is now restricted to a much smaller range with only two small breeding populations; one in India with the largest colony in Assam and the other in Cambodia.
The Greater Adjutant is the most endangered stork of the world. The IUCN, International Wetland Research Bureau (IWRB) Specialist Group on Stork, Ibis and Spoonbill (SIS) and the International Council of Bird Preservation (ICBP) have all declared the Greater Adjutant Stork as first priority species for conservation.
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Chosen as 'Picture of the Week'
A vast expanse of stinking garbage has become one of the favoured feeding grounds of the rare Greater Adjutant Stork. One shudders to think of the toxic substances that these scavengers must be ingesting along with their food.