White Stork

White Stork is a large wading bird, which is the common name for European white stork and Oriental white stork. There are three subspecies, namely: European white stork Central Asian subspecies, European white stork nominate subspecies, and Oriental white stork.

White storks often move in groups except in pairs during the breeding season. Especially during the migration season, they often gather in large groups of dozens or even hundreds of individuals. When foraging, they often walk in pairs or small groups along the waterside or on the grass and marshes, walking lightly and nimbly, pecking at food as they walk. When resting, they often stand on one or two legs on the beach or grass by the waterside, with their necks shrunk into an S shape. Sometimes they also like to fly and hover over their habitats. When taking off from the ground, they need to run a distance on the ground first and flap their wings vigorously, and then they can fly after gaining a certain amount of lift. When flying, their necks are stretched forward and their feet are stretched behind their tails. They can not only flap their wings to fly, but also use thermal air currents to hover and glide in the air. They are alert and timid. If there is an intruder, they often show a unique intimidation behavior. That is, through the rapid flapping of the upper and lower mouths, a "tattack" mouth sound is emitted, accompanied by a series of behaviors such as the neck stretching upward, the head tilting back, then stretching downward, swinging left and right, the wings half open and the tail erected upward, and the feet walking constantly.

White storks like to walk alone or in pairs on the banks of ponds or open marsh grass, pecking while walking. Sometimes they stand still on the ground for a long time. They are gentle and silent when they move, and are relatively quiet birds. But during the breeding period or when disturbed by intruders, they can also make a "tapping" sound by flapping their upper and lower mouths eagerly. Its food mainly includes frogs, tadpoles, toads, snakes, lizards, earthworms, grasshoppers, mollusks, crustaceans, insects and insect larvae, and sometimes small mammals such as mice and bird eggs. They often forage alone or in small groups, and often gather in large groups in areas with abundant food. They mainly forage during the day, and sometimes on moonlit nights. They mainly forage through vision. When foraging, the body leans forward, the head and neck stretch forward, and walks lightly and slowly. After finding food, it quickly captures it with its mouth, and sometimes forages in the water by touch. After eating, it often stands on the ground to rest, and sometimes inserts its mouth into the feathers under the front neck. When foraging in the water, it mainly uses touch. Usually it walks alone in shallow water by the water, and sometimes enters the water up to the belly, while walking slowly forward, and inserting its half-open mouth into the water from time to time. In addition to eating animal food, it occasionally eats a small amount of plant food such as plant leaves, moss and seeds, as well as sand and pebbles.

The white stork is a migratory bird that mainly migrates to tropical Africa and the Indian subcontinent to spend the winter. Migration mainly relies on rising thermal air currents for high-altitude gliding, so that it can use very little energy to migrate long distances. Therefore, it often avoids vast forests and waters. If it must pass through, it also looks for the narrowest place to pass. Migration usually takes place in the morning and afternoon when the weather is hottest, and the distance of migration can reach 100-200 kilometers per day. When taking off from the ground, it must first run for a distance on the ground and flap its wings vigorously, and then it can fly after gaining a certain amount of lift. When flying, the head and neck are stretched forward, and the feet are stretched backward, protruding far outside the tail feathers. It can flap its wings to fly, and it can also glide at high altitudes using the rising thermal air currents. Especially during migration, when flapping its wings, the two wings flap slowly, appearing to be unhurried, and often alternate with gliding. The flapping speed of the two wings is 170 times per minute, and the flying speed is 40-47 kilometers per hour. The flying altitude can reach more than 1,600 meters to 3,600 meters. During migration, it even appears over the Himalayas at 4,300 meters. From the breeding grounds in Europe to the wintering grounds in South Africa, the longest migration distance can reach more than 20,000 kilometers round trip. A 25-year-old European white stork was once recorded in Germany, migrating a total of about 500,000 kilometers in its lifetime. In autumn, most of them migrate from the breeding grounds in mid-to-late August to early September, and in spring, they leave the wintering grounds in March-April. They migrate in large groups, with each group often having more than 500 birds, and the highest record is more than 21,000 birds.

The breeding season of white storks is from April to June. They usually migrate to the breeding grounds in small groups of a few to more than 10 birds. When they first migrate, they usually do not enter the breeding grounds immediately, but forage on the banks of rivers and lakes that have begun to melt, or hover over them to find nesting sites and feeding places. In late March, they begin to disperse into pairs and enter their respective breeding grounds in pairs. The nesting areas are mostly selected in open grasslands and farmland swamps with no or little disturbance, abundant food, and sparse trees or small patches of jungle. Sometimes they also choose to nest in forest belts thousands to more than 10 kilometers away from water areas, swamps and other feeding places. They often nest in pairs on willows, elms and poplars.

The nests of white storks are usually located on the branches at the top of the tree, and are made of dry branches. The inner pad is made of dead grass, down feathers and moss or without any inner pad. The height of the nest from the ground varies depending on the environment and the height of the tree. It is usually 3-17 meters high. The nesting time starts from mid-March to the end of March. Male and female birds build nests together. Usually the male bird goes out to find and transport nesting materials, and the female bird stays on the nest to build the nest. The nest is disc-shaped and has a relatively large structure. The size is 120-230 cm in outer diameter, 50-74 cm in inner diameter, 15-35 cm in depth, and 50-200 cm in height. If the nest is not disturbed or destroyed, or if the breeding is successful in the same year, the nest will continue to be used the next year, but the male and female parents will repair and raise the old nest every year, so the nest often becomes quite large as the number of years of use increases.

The earliest time for white storks to lay eggs is from the end of March to the beginning of April. But most of them lay eggs in mid-April. Each nest lays 4-6 eggs, which are white in color and oval in shape. The average size is 75.8×56.6 mm and the average egg weight is 129.7 grams. After the first egg is laid, it begins to incubate. The incubation is shared by the male and female parents, but the female is the main one. They rotate 2-4 times a day, and the female incubates the eggs at night. The incubation period is 31-34 days. The chicks are late-maturing. When they are just hatched, they are covered with light brown down feathers and have black beaks. The chicks are fed by both male and female parents. When the chicks grow to 55 days old, they can fly back and forth short distances near the nest. After 60-63 days old, they will fly away from the nest area with their parents to find food and will no longer return to the nest.

In Europe, people call white storks "child-bearing birds". According to legend, the family where the child-bearing white stork lands on the roof to build a nest and settle down will have a son and live happily. Therefore, in the countryside of Europe, you can often see a platform on the chimney of the roof of the house, which is specially prepared for the white stork. And for thousands of years, it seems that the family where the white stork builds a nest will give birth to a child soon. The scientific theory is that in ancient times, when someone in the host family was pregnant, the family would burn fire for heating longer than ordinary people, and the white stork would prefer to choose the chimney of such a family to build a nest and settle down. Over time, kind people still regard the white stork as an auspicious child-bearing bird, and it has become a folk custom. Disney animation also cleverly applies this folk allusion. When naive children ask their parents how they came into this world, their parents will say "the white stork brought them here".

Listed in the "Red List of Threatened Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2016 ver 3.1: Endangered (EN) - 1 species; Least Concern (LC) - 1 species.

All listed in the first level of China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021).

The Oriental White Stork is listed in Appendix I, Appendix II and Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 2019 Edition Appendix I.

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Origin: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain (Canary Islands).
Origin uncertain: Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swazila

The wings are long and wide, allowing for gliding. When flying, the neck is stretched forward and the legs are stretched backward, extending beyond the tip of the tail. Similar to other storks, the legs, neck and beak are very slender. The plumage is mainly white, with black feathers on the wings. The primary wing feathers, secondary wing feathers, primary coverts, upper wing coverts, shoulder feathers and winglet feathers are black with a green or purple sheen. The base of the primary flight feathers is white, and the outer feather edges and feather tips of the inner primary flight feathers and secondary flight feathers are all silver-gray, gradually turning black inward. There are long lanceolate feathers on the lower part of the front neck, which can stand upright during courtship. The bird's beak is red, straight in shape, not tilted upward, and the base of the beak is thick and gradually tapers to the tip. The exposed skin around the eyes, eyeliner and throat is black, the ir