White Stork

The white stork is a large, long-legged wading bird that breeds across much of Europe, parts of North Africa and western Asia, migrating to sub-Saharan Africa or the Indian subcontinent for the winter. It is mostly white with black flight feathers, a long red bill and red legs, and it is famous in European folklore for its supposed role in delivering newborn babies, a legend tied to its habit of nesting on rooftops and chimneys close to human settlements. White storks feed on a varied diet of insects, frogs, small mammals and fish, foraging in meadows, farmland and wetlands, and they build enormous stick nests that are reused and enlarged over many years, sometimes by successive generations of the same pair. Once in decline across parts of western Europe due to wetland drainage and changing farming practices, the species has recovered strongly in many countries thanks to conservation efforts and reintroduction programs.