White Stork
Associated with bringing babies to humans, the story of the White Stork takes an ironic twist when it comes to bringing up their own young
It was the year after the Battle of Agincourt. England was on the up, having conquered large swathes of France. The Welsh Rebellion had been put to bed, while relations with the Scottish King James I were remarkably cordial. The great warrior King Henry V was a national English hero. Even the terror of the plague had receded once more. It was a propitious moment.
This was the year that White Storks bred successfully in Britain for the first, and so far, only recorded time, 1416. A pair built a nest atop St Giles Church (now Cathedral) in Edinburgh and apparently hatched a chick.
There is little doubt that White Storks had nested before on our islands, not just in prehistoric times, but also more recently. The village of Storrington, now in West Sussex, is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), and its name means “Home of the stork.” There are mentions of storks in the famous lists from medieval banquets and depictions of them in English art, although neither of these are concrete proof of a breeding population.
However, the very fact that the date of the Edinburgh stork nesting was recorded so long ago does suggest that it was a rare and notable event. The experience of the more than 600 subsequent years proves this. There have been just a handful of breeding attempts, all of which have failed.
In 2019, however, a reintroduction scheme centred very close to Storrington, on the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, nearly brought the second British record. A pair of storks laid eggs on the estate grounds, but
they failed to hatch. A small flock of White Storks was released into the wild last spring, and there are high hopes for success this year.
Whatever you think of the reintroduction scheme, it is unlikely that you dislike – or even feel neutral – about the bird itself. It is a compelling sight. Just over a metre tall, its plumage is mainly white, and both the very long bill and the legs are scarlet red. In flight, it is luscious. The head is held out, which confers a certain regal grace which, incidentally, herons sadly lose when they retract their necks. The wingbeats are slow, measured and effortless, and when the wings are held out during soaring, the ‘fingers’ of the wings (the slots which give aerodynamic stability) stand out and make it look more spectacular still. Does any bird look so sumptuous when it has taken to the air?
In parts of Central Europe, of course, a stork’s flight can be temporarily impaired as it embarks on the task of delivering human babies in the spring. Many infants are carried, already swaddled, in the bill or on the back. According to legend, the longed-for children are collected in caves, where they are manufactured, and brought, by special delivery, to favoured homes. These are usually households who have left gifts for the storks the previous year. This charming association with childbirth continues in people’s minds and customs even today. Baby shops still sell stork-related items.
It isn’t the only stork-related tradition, because for many people storks have a more general connection with the time of re-birth and transformation, the temperate spring. White Storks are migrants of the most reliable kind. After the long winter, when people were for months universally vulnerable to the vagaries of cold and damp, what greater sight could meet the weary eye than the sight of the huge, pure-white bird of fair seasons delivering itself on to your rooftop? The joy of seeing storks reflected the joy of the turning year.
Faithful birds
Storks also reflected another great human wish; that of fidelity. Pairs of storks, so prominent among human villages, have a demonstrably intimate relationship. At every meeting at the nest, there is a noisy and unmistakable display of togetherness, with both birds bill-clattering, often stretching their neck back so the head lies on the bird’s mantle. Pairs do stay together and typically re-pair in future seasons, so their show of faithfulness isn’t fake.
Storks unhesitatingly use human artefacts on which to nest and, once again, they use them year after year. Quite apart from churches and cathedrals, they nest on all kinds of rooftops, from private houses to town halls. White Storks clearly follow a
motto of “If it ain’t broke…” in many aspects of their lives, because each year they typically use the same nest, simply adding some sticks to their platform year after year. Over a long period of time of continuous occupation, stork nests can become very large, and some have weighed in at two metric tonnes and been as tall as 2.5m. One nest was known to be used annually for 381 years.
Prey items
If being reliable was the White Stork’s only quality, that would endear it to many, but there is also an extra fringe benefit to having pairs of storks present in your village. They are exceptional pest controllers. While people appreciate White Storks, a wide range of small animals, including rats and mice, absolutely don’t.
The tall waders are large birds, with an appetite to match, and they aren’t especially fussy what enters the gullet, so long as it is edible. Among the more prominent prey items are grasshoppers and locusts (which are also a vital resource in the wintering areas in tropical Africa), beetles, lizards, snakes, moles, voles, earthworms and, locally, frogs, birds and their eggs and nestlings, fish, molluscs and crustaceans. The hunter doesn’t even eschew shrews, which can be poisonous. The feeding method is remarkably simple. The stork simply flies down to a field or pool, or patch of marshland, and then – well, it stalks. Obviously. Prey is usually located by sight, although storks can use their bills for tactile searching, too.
They can hunt in moonlight when the need is most intense during the breeding season. All they seem to require is a habitat with lots of food, and then they can window-shop as they wander or wade.
The most important attribute for a stork’s nesting location is a ready supply of food. These days, in Eastern Europe, a few have begun to nest near landfill sites, so it’s clear they are not fussy about insalubrious surroundings. The bottom line is food. If it is plentiful, the storks can bring up their own babies.
The equation is a simple one. A White Stork will lay three to five eggs, and the fate of the young depends entirely on the prevailing food supply. In boom years, all the eggs will hatch after a month and each has a decent chance of survival. However, in lean years, only the oldest chick or chicks have any chance. Storks begin incubation as soon as they have laid the first couple of eggs, which means that these hatch first and the subsequent brood is of uneven age, with the oldest and youngest being up to six days apart. The oldest chicks receive the lion’s share of the food.
Parental infanticide
There is a twist to this parenting tale that will shock all those to whom the stork has a wholesome association. White Storks sometimes kill the youngest chicks, when they are aware there isn’t enough to go around. They don’t just let the older chicks out-compete them. They kill them, an act of parental infanticide.
If ever there was an ironic twist to a cultural quirk. It seems that the hardworking storks of Central Europe are perfectly happy to bring children to humans. However, when it comes to their own offspring, it turns out that they aren’t quite so generous.
THERE IS A TWIST TO THIS PARENTING TALE THAT WILL SHOCK ALL THOSE TO WHOM THE STORK HAS A WHOLESOME ASSOCIATION