Storks are birds of the tropics, but White Storks and Black Storks breed in Continental Europe, and then migrate south to Africa to spend the winter.
About Storks
Storks are found in tropical regions worldwide. There are nineteen different species, divided into typical storks and wood storks; just two species inhabit cooler regions and then only during the summer months when they migrate north to breed. These are the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) and the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra), summer migrants to Continental Europe and Asia. North America has only one native species: the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana).
Storks are large birds with long bills, necks and legs that forage in wetlands and open areas. Their diet consists of reptiles and amphibians, fish, birds, insects, mollusks, and other invertebrates, and some feed on carrion.
European Storks
White Storks: Of the two species of stork familiar to Europeans, the White Stork is the bird connected most closely to tradition and legend. This is true for several reasons. Most importantly, White Storks prefer to nest in human communities, building large nests atop roofs, chimneys, towers and high platforms. As well, White Storks return year after year to the same nest. It’s easy to see why these birds have become symbolic of continuity and the renewal of life. In legend, the White Stork brings newborn babies to young mothers.
White Storks forage for food in farmer’s fields near their nesting site. They are found in various places in Asia as well as Europe. Since the middle of the 20th century, this species has declined drastically.
Black Storks: Far less common than White Storks, Black Storks have a much broader summer range that stretches right across Europe and Asia to the Pacific. Shunning humans, Black Storks nest in forests and forage in wetlands.
European Stork Migration
The majority of storks that breed in Continental Europe spend the winter months in sub-Saharan Africa. They migrate north in late winter and early spring, and return south in late summer to early fall.
Storks move from place to place by riding thermal air currents: they locate warm air thermals and allow the current to carry them high up, and then glide long distances to other warm air thermals. This not only tends to concentrate large numbers of migrating birds together in one place, it limits the migration routes that they can follow. For White Storks, who seldom use flapping flight, it means that they cannot cross the wide Mediterranean Sea and must go around, either across Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula, or across the Strait of Gibraltar. Black Storks use flapping flight more often and some do migrate across the Mediterranean using narrow points and islands.
White Storks are perhaps among the most visible of migrating birds because of their close association with humans and their tendency to congregate in air thermals en route.
Watch a video of White Storks in a rooftop nest on Bird Cinema
Related Content:
Sources:
Atlas of Bird Migration. Elphick, Jonathan ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2007.
Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003
