emergence of snails. It can start either just before, at the beginning of or late in the rainy season. The bulk of the breeding season occurs during the rainy season and peaks in January-March. The rainy season lasts from August to May. Pair formation The males of a colony will select a nest spot and display on it. Females will move from tree to tree, trying to approach the male’s nest spots. The males repeatedly drive away the females. Violent fights can erupt between the potential pairs if the females approach the nest too quickly. Eventually, the male accepts the female as a mate and allows her to come near into the nest spot for copulation. Overall, males dominate the mate selection process as they have the final say of who they mate with. Nest construction African openbill storks’ nest in tall trees and often favor the lowest branches of those trees. The nest which usually takes up to a week to build and both sexes contribute to the construction. The African openbill builds a nest that is ~50 cm wide, which is relatively small for this medium-sized bird. The nest consists of a thin platform of sticks and twigs, lined with leaves, grasses, sedges and other aquatic plants. Parental care The female African openbill will lay 3 to 4 eggs. These are oval and chalky white. Both parents will then care for the eggs through the incubation period of 25-30 days. When taking care of the eggs, the parents can occasionally be seen regurgitating water over them. The exact nature of this behaviour remains unknown, but scientists believe it serves to cool down the eggs. Once the chicks have hatched, parental care continues to be shared by both parents and both the male and female will bring food and care for the hatchlings. After 50-55 days in the nest, the chicks will fledge and leave the nest. Threats Habitat loss, disturbances of feeding areas, pollution from pesticide used on mosquitoes and entanglement in fishing lines all pose potential threats to these birds. The African openbill does remain common in habitats suitable for them, but human activity could pose a danger to the species. Pesticide poisoning In Kenya, the African openbill stork is subject to deliberate poisoning from poachers. They are being poisoned through a special baiting technique that uses a live decoy. The poachers set up the decoy and