It was the ugliest bird I ever saw

There are many beautiful birds in this world, but let’s be honest, there are also some awfully ugly ones.

I think the ugliest I have ever seen is the marabou stork. It is said this bird fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

I saw this species on a trip to Uganda in Africa, and was struck by its sickly, bald head, its hunched gait and skinny legs. No wonder it has been described as “an emaciated Count Dracula” and dubbed “the undertaker bird.”

What’s more, ugly is as ugly does in the case of this hulking stork. Its feet and legs are often covered in white excrement where it poops on itself. And, like a vulture, it pokes its featherless bald head deep into carcasses to eat. It is not particular about what it eats, either, and feeds on carrion, lizards, baby crocodiles, snakes, mice, birds and insects.

With its skinny legs, wedge-shaped bill and bulbous, inflatable pink wattle, this bird is the embodiment of ugly.

It roosts in groups of up to a thousand and these gatherings are said to resemble something out of the Star Wars Cantina, with birds competing in downright ugliness.

Other ugly birds include the vulturine guinea fowl with its bright red face; the southern bald ibis, looking like a bald old man; and the Sri Lanka frogmouth, with its well-described mouth. But the marabou stork is almost certainly near the top of the ugly list.

In fact, it probably did not fall from the ugly tree – it was pushed.