Scientific Name:
Ciconia ciconia (White Stork)
Description
The stork can't be confused with any other European migrating bird. Standing up, it is three to four feet tall. Its wingspan is five to seven feet. Easily recognized by its white plumage, black flight and shoulder feathers, the long, red beak, and the red legs. It lands on trees and buildings. Often, it will stand on one leg, then march solemnly with its neck straight and inclined toward the front. Flight is slow, with regular wingbeats. The stork rises with its wings motionless on thermal updrafts into the sky. In this way, the "glider" saves a lot of energy.
Reproduction
The nesting season lasts from the beginning of April until the beginning of August. Storks usually lay three or four eggs, then incubate them for 32-33 days.
Breeding Areas
Open landscapes, generally wet green areas, river valleys with periodic flooding, meadows and pastures in agricultural use, flood plains.
Nest
Storks originally built their nests on rocks and old trees, today more likely on roofs and chimneys.
The nest is built of branches and may be seven feet wide and 13 feet tall, and can weigh up to two tons.
Feeding
Storks nourish themselves with small mammals, newts, lizards, snakes, fish, large insects and their larvae, and earthworms. Occasionally they will eat the eggs and young of ground-breeding birds. The stork snatches its prey mainly while walking, with its head and beak inclined downwards. For this reason, the white stork needs broad, open, wet meadows. Today these are often destroyed by drainage or, when unused, become obscured by thickets.
Protection
The white stork needs our help. Unless major steps are taken to protect it, the stork has virtually no chance of long-term survival in Germany. Future preservation of the white stork will rely on significant changes in agricultural policy.
