Home > HYOGO 兵庫県 > Toyooka 豊岡市 > Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork 兵庫県立コウノトリの郷公園

Most viewed - Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork 兵庫県立コウノトリの郷公園
ty200-20181027-0006.jpg
When you arrive JR Toyooka Station, you will soon notice that the Oriental white stork ("kounotori" in Japanese) is the symbol of the city. Even the roof looks like a soaring bird. 129 views
ty279-20181026-0007.jpg
Oriental White Stork manhole in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture.109 views
ty201-20181026-0024.jpg
Directional sign at JR Toyooka Station.107 views
ty245-20181026-0427.jpg
102 views
ty253-20181026-0510.jpg
Oriental white stork eating a fish.101 views
ty278-20181026-0006.jpg
Oriental White Stork manhole in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture.101 views
ty234-20181026-0233.jpg
I didn't expect to see the storks flying around, so I was thrilled when a few of them flew overhead while I was in the park. They flew in during feeding time.100 views
ty241-20181026-0246.jpg
99 views
ty247-20181026-0464.jpg
White stork landing in the paddy during feeding time.97 views
ty255-20181026-0301a.jpg
Two Oriental white storks on a nesting platform. Each nesting platform has a video camera monitoring it 24/7 especially during the egg-laying and hatching season in spring.97 viewsThe park is likely crowded during this time until the babies leave the nest in June/July.
ty213-20181026-0083.jpg
White stork mail box at Oriental White Stork Park in Toyooka, Hyogo.96 views
ty244-20181026-0425.jpg
95 views
ty228-20181026-0165.jpg
The Oriental white stork is a big, beautiful bird often mistaken as the Japanese crane. Wingspan is 2 meters.94 views
ty249-20181026-0472.jpg
Grey herons also drop by, but they are always fighting each other.94 views
ty230-20181026-0176.jpg
Toyooka was where the last living Oriental white stork in Japan died in 1986. Pesticides in rice paddies (where they feed) and other environmental problems caused their demise.93 views
ty248-20181026-0456.jpg
Feeding time for the storks also attracts unwanted birds like black kites. They swoop in and steal a fish, then don't come back.93 views
ty202-20181026-0018.jpg
Vending machine with Oriental white stork design motif at JR Toyooka Station.77 views
ty207-20181026-0055.jpg
Love Toyooka's bag bus.68 views
ty280-20181026-0592.jpg
Airline with a plane donning an Oriental White Stork motif.58 views
ty211-20181026-0066.jpg
Spider web.53 views
ty205-20181026-0041.jpg
The bus going to Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork Park is designed like a bag to promote Toyooka as a bag-producing city.51 views
ty208-20181026-0048.jpg
Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork has a few buildings amid large rice paddies and mountains.50 views
ty227-20181026-0315.jpg
The Oriental white stork has black and white wings and a black bill.50 views
ty226-20181026-0405.jpg
The storks are carnivores, feeding on fish, frogs, snakes, rabbits, mice, etc. 50 views
ty233-20181026-0220.jpg
As of Oct. 2018, Japan has over 140 Oriental white storks in the wild. They are also successfully breeding in Tokushima, Shimane, and Kyoto Prefectures. 50 viewsIt's still an endangered species, with only slightly over 2,000 of them in the Far East.
ty250-20181026-0340.jpg
Crows also drop by.50 views
ty275-20181026-0549.jpg
Park's website: http://www.stork.u-hyogo.ac.jp/en/50 views
ty220-20181026-0377.jpg
Toyooka Oriental White Stork Culture Center's open cage for Oriental white storks. It includes paddies used for feeding. The cage is "open" because it only hasa fence and no roof.49 views
ty221-20181026-0137.jpg
Toyooka Oriental White Stork Culture Center's open cage for Oriental white storks. There are about nine storks in the open cage. Their wings have been clipped to they cannot fly. 49 views
ty223-20181026-0132.jpg
About the Oriental white stork open cage.49 views
ty225-20181026-0354.jpg
They are throwing small dead fish into the paddies. 49 views
ty237-20181026-0240.jpg
49 views
ty239-20181026-0243.jpg
49 views
ty254-20181026-0258.jpg
Landing on a nesting platform.49 views
ty258-20181026-0581.jpg
The hanafuda card with the "crane" is actually an Oriental white stork. It actually looks like a cross between the two birds...49 views
ty262-20181026-0120.jpg
49 views
ty264-20181026-0119.jpg
49 views
ty276-20181026-0064.jpg
Gift shops in this building next to the parking lot.49 views
ty203-20181026-0026.jpg
Oriental white stork decoration at JR Toyooka Station. To see real, living Oriental white storks, you have to visit the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork Park.48 views
ty206-20181026-0046.jpg
48 views
ty209-20181026-0068.jpg
Huge rice paddy within Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork.48 views
ty219-20181026-0110.jpg
Inside the Oriental White Stork Culture Center. Walk through this building to the other side of the building to see the open cage.48 views
ty222-20181026-0145.jpg
So if you go to Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork, you can see real Oriental white storks.48 views
ty231-20181026-0179.jpg
In 1985, six wild Oriental white stork chicks from the USSR (Khabarovsk) were acquired to be raised in Toyooka. From 1989, the birds from Russia started to breed successfully in captivity in Toyooka every year. 48 views
ty238-20181026-0242.jpg
48 views
ty240-20181026-0244.jpg
48 views
ty242-20181026-0248.jpg
48 views
ty243-20181026-0293.jpg
They make a loud clacking noise with their bills.48 views
ty246-20181026-0428.jpg
48 views
ty251-20181026-0447.jpg
Storks swallow the fish whole.48 views
ty259-20181026-0578.jpg
Exhibits.48 views
ty269-20181026-0571.jpg
Even insects.48 views
ty277-20181026-0588.jpg
Confection shaped like stork eggs.48 views
ty210-20181026-0080.jpg
Rice paddy has a high nesting platform. The nest still intact.47 views
ty216-20181026-0094.jpg
The building in the middle is the University of Hyogo Graduate School of Regional Resource Management.47 views
ty229-20181026-0174.jpg
Once found all over Japan, the Oriental white stork ("kounotori" in Japanese) became extinct in the wild in Japan in 1971 despite preservation efforts since 1955.47 views
ty232-20181026-0189.jpg
From 2005, the park started releasing Oriental white storks into the wild in Toyooka, which was a great celebration. The birds then started to breed and reproduce in the wild.47 viewsThey've been releasing only a few birds (fewer than 5) almost every year.
ty252-20181026-0507.jpg
47 views
ty256-20181026-0528.jpg
Oriental white stork nests are large, about 2 meters diameter, made of tree branches and straw.47 views
ty271-20181026-0099.jpg
47 views
ty272-20181026-0537.jpg
Nesting platform.47 views
ty273-20181026-0545.jpg
About the biotope.47 views
ty204-20181026-0034.jpg
From JR Toyooka Station, there are buses that go to Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork Park. However, they run only once or twice an hour. Bus schedule under the purple column.46 views
ty212-20181026-0060.jpg
Kounotori can also mean "bird bringing happiness." Sculpture related to the bird of happiness. Makes people happy especially when the stork delivers your baby.46 views
ty215-20181026-0093.jpg
Gate to Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork. Open: 9:00 am–5:00 pm, closed Mondays (open if a national holiday and closed the next day instead), December 28th–January 4th.46 views
ty214-20181026-0096.jpg
Basic map of Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork. Only one building on the left is open to the public.46 views
ty224-20181026-0348.jpg
Around 9:30 am to 10 am, they feed the storks. This is the best time to visit the park. And the best chances of seeing storks flying around.46 views
ty236-20181026-0238.jpg
46 views
ty257-20181026-0564.jpg
Back inside the Oriental White Stork Culture Center. On the left is the European white stork with a red bill, on the right is the Oriental white stork with a black bill. Very similar.46 views
ty260-20181026-0575.jpg
46 views
ty261-20181026-0572.jpg
46 views
ty263-20181026-0117.jpg
46 views
ty217-20181026-0091.jpg
On the right is the park's administrative building.45 views
ty218-20181026-0586.jpg
On the left is the Toyooka Kounotori Bunkakan or Oriental White Stork Culture Center.45 views
ty235-20181026-0216.jpg
45 views
ty265-20181026-0568.jpg
45 views
ty266-20181026-0563.jpg
45 views
ty267-20181026-0569.jpg
Screening room.45 views
ty268-20181026-0570.jpg
Aquariums with fish.45 views
ty270-20181026-0095.jpg
Part of the park is a large biotope used as a stork sanctuary and research facility. Only part of it is open to the public.45 views
ty274-20181026-0546.jpg
Large biotope used as a stork sanctuary and research facility.44 views
     
81 files on 1 page(s)