This small stork feeds almost exclusively on large insects, so it is easy to see how they congregate in meadows and grasslands following large flocks or in agricultural areas. They gather in large numbers on the edges of small fires, waiting for insects that flee from the fire, and around huge swarms of locusts, catching these grasshoppers voraciously.

It enjoys the protection and protection of many people who consider it a sign of good luck for arriving with the rains or for destroying the locusts that would otherwise devour their crops. For this reason, it nests without fear in towns, on the roofs of houses, sometimes encouraged by the inhabitants themselves.

It nests colonially in cliffs, trees or agricultural environments. The male takes possession of an old nest that is usually a platform of sticks. The females approach until she chooses one, they lay two to three eggs and the chicks begin to fly after two months.

Intra-African migratory bird, it makes migratory movements coinciding with the rainy season, between May and August they reproduce in the tropical areas of the northern hemisphere, then between September and October they cross the equator and move towards the east and then towards the south in the case of the populations of eastern Africa or towards the south in the case of the most southern populations.

They arrive in the tropics of southern Africa at the beginning of the rainy season (November to March) where they remain until the rains subside, at which point they move north again during April and May, just as those rains begin. latitudes the rainy season.