The onset of the rains in South Sudan around April each year is accompanied by a remarkable avian spectacle. “There are so many storks that they kind of look like flies in the sky,” said Megan Claase, a conservation manager with African Parks, the organization that manages the Boma and Badingilo national parks in partnership with the South Sudanese government. The vast flocks congregating in the skies above Boma and Badingilo include African openbills (Anastomus lamelligerus), Abdim’s storks (Ciconia abdimii), and other birds moving across Africa in sync with the changing seasons. “I think it’s a very productive system after the first rains,” Claase told Mongabay, citing as an example the large blooms of winged alates that emerge from termite holes and are eaten by a wide variety of birds, including the storks. “It’s just such a haven for migratory species.” Wetlands, Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, South Sudan. Image © Marcus Westberg. As the rains persist and much of the landscape becomes waterlogged, an abundance of invertebrate food is produced, Claase said. That includes snails and other mollusks eaten by the openbills, named for the curious gap in their bills that help them to grip their slippery prey. The Boma and Badingilo parks and surrounding areas are all part of a massive interconnected ecosystem of wetlands, swamps, woodlands, and grassy plains, which Claase said lies at the heart of Africa’s largest intact savanna system. This landscape, around the size of North Korea, is home to an estimated 6 million antelopes, among…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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