The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae, breeding in the warmer parts of Europe (north to Estonia), northwest Africa, and southwest Asia (east to southern Kazakhstan).
It is a strong migrant, wintering mainly in tropical Africa, down to the south of South Africa, and also in the Indian Subcontinent.

It is a huge bird, 100-125 cm (40-50 in.) tall, with a 155-200 cm (61-79 in) wingspan and a weight of 2.3-4.5 kg (5-10 lbs). It is completely white except for the black wing flight feathers, and its red bill and legs. It walks slowly and steadily on the ground. Like all storks, it flies with its neck outstretched.Almost one-fourth of the world's population of white stork Ciconia ciconia nests are in Poland.




The first white storks usually arrive in Poland in mid-March. It is the males which occupy old nests first, with the females joining them later. In April, the females begin to lay eggs. A female lays 2 to 6, sometimes even 7 eggs. It is a rare occurrence, however, to find more than 4 chicks in one nest. In 2004 the average was about two chicks.


They start to learn flying from early July to the beginning of August. Between the second part of August till the beginning of September, the storks start leaving their nesting sites in Poland and migrate to Africa for the winter.
At that time, one can see large flocks of storks (of more then ten up to several dozen individuals) gathering in fields and meadows, which are either preparing for the journey or just resting en-route.
(text, foto.: storks.poland.pl)

Archive

Poland is „european capital” of white stork. Every year about 50 thousand couples of 160 thousand in the whole world come to our country. The majority of polish storks live in valleys and backwater of Warmia, Mazury and Podlasie.