It lives in wetland habitats and near fields of certain crops such as rice and wheat where it forages for a wide range of animal prey.

[9] The genera Xenorhynchus and Ephippiorhynchus were both erected at the same time, and as first revisor, Kahl[7] selected the latter as the valid genus for the two species.

[1] The only published weight for this species was a single specimen at 4,100 g (9.0 lb), but this is nearly 35% less than the mean body mass of the closely related and similar sized saddle-billed stork.

Juveniles younger than six months have a brownish iris; a distinctly smaller and straighter beak; a fluffy appearance; brown head, neck, upper back, wings and tail; a white belly; and dark legs.

Juveniles older than six months have a mottled appearance especially on the head and neck where the iridescence is partly developed; dark-brown outer primaries; white inner primaries that forms a shoulder patch when the wings are closed; a heavy beak identical in size to adults but still straighter; and dark to pale-pink legs.

[21][22][23][24] This distinctive stork is an occasional straggler in southern and eastern Pakistan, and is a confirmed breeding species in central lowland Nepal.

An estimated 1800 occur in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory, with overall numbers during surveys being low in all seasons.

[28] A combination of aerial surveys and ground counts in the middle Fly River floodplain, Papua New Guinea estimated 317 (December 1994) and 249 (April 1995) storks.

[32] The largest known breeding population occurs in the largely agricultural landscape of south-western Uttar Pradesh in India.

[4] Densities of about 0.099 birds per square kilometre have been estimated in this region made up of a mosaic of cultivated fields and wetlands.

[5] Nests are usually on trees located in secluded parts of large marshes[2][15][33] or in cultivated fields as in India and lowland Nepal.

[4][27][34] The nest is large, as much as 3 to 6 feet across and made up of sticks, branches and lined with rushes, water-plants and sometimes with a mud plaster on the edges.

[42] Adult birds take turns at the nest and when one returns to relieve the other, they perform a greeting display with open wings and an up and down movement of the head.

[47] Adults aggressively defend small depressions of deep water against egrets and herons (at Malabanjbanjdju in Kakadu National Park, Australia[48]), and drying wetland patches against waterbirds such as spoonbills and woolly-necked storks (at Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, India[49]).

[54] Stomach content analyses of nine storks in Australia showed their diet to contain crabs, molluscs, insects (grasshoppers and beetles), amphibians, reptiles and birds.

[19] Juveniles fledged from the nests can occasionally call using a mildly-warbling, high-pitched series of whistles, accompanied with open, quivering wings.

[5] Flocks of up to 15 storks have been observed in Australia and India, and these possibly form due to local habitat conditions such as drying out of wetlands.

[60] The black-necked stork is widely scattered and nowhere found in high densities, making it difficult for populations to be reliably estimated.

The Sri Lankan population has been estimated to be about 50 birds while the species has become very rare in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

They are threatened by habitat destruction, the draining of shallow wetlands, disturbance at nests, overfishing, pollution, collision with electricity wires and hunting.

[27][39][61] However, healthy breeding populations are found in unprotected and intensively cultivated agricultural landscapes (especially in south Asia) and cattle raising areas (as in north-east Australia).

Suggestions abound in literature regarding Black-necked Storks requiring undisturbed wetlands, but these appear valid only in areas where hunting of wildlife is common (like in some countries in south-east Asia).

[1] The Mir Shikars, traditional bird hunters of Bihar, India had a ritual practice that required a young man to capture a black-necked stork "Loha Sarang" alive before he could marry.

[65] The difference in iris colour among the sexes was noted in 1865 by A D Bartlett, the superintendent in charge of the collection at the Zoological Society of London.