White Stork - Ciconia ciconia

White Stork

Ciconia ciconia

Order : Ciconiiformes

Family : Ciconiidae ;

Biometrics :

Size : 90 à 115 cm
Wingspan : 195 à 215 cm
Weight : 3000 à 3500 g

Longevity : 26 years

IUCN conservation status :

Extinct

Threatened

Least
concern

Extinc
in the Wild

Near
threatened

Not
evaluated

EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

Geographic range :

Synonyms : Bely Aist (ru), Vit stork (sv), Ciguëña común (es), Cicogna bianca (it), Weissstorch (al), Ooievaar (nl), White Stork (en)

Physical description :
White Storks adults of two sexes have entirely white plumage, except black primaries and secondaries. Tail is white. Long bill, straight and sharp is dagger- shaped, and sizes up to 15 to 19 cm. Bill and long legs are red.
Young have dull dark red bill and legs, and tip of the bill is blackish.
Chicks are covered with white, short and scarce down. Second down is denser one week later, bill is blackish, legs turn from pink to grey, ending in yellow.

Voice :
Sound from CD 'Tous les Oiseaux d'Europe' by Jean C. Roché by courtesy of Sittelle and CEBA. White Stork is usually rather quiet. We can hear some guttural sounds when at nest or a whistle if it is disturbed or alarmed. But most traditional sounds are not vocal expressions, but rapids highly rhythmical bill slapping, often heard close or in the nest. These slapping may resemble very high-pitched sounds, of variable intensity, and are accompanied by neck moves, head going backwards on shoulders, before returning forwards for better starting again. This behaviour is considered as a nod between the birds, but also as show of excitement, or as announcement of arrival to the nest.

Habitat : White Stork lives in open cultivated and pastures areas, in wet meadows and plains on stream sides, orchards and irrigated fields.
White Stork is sociable and lives close to humans, although sometimes it remains shy and scared. It nests on monuments, poles, church towers, large trees, close to open fields and wetlands, at low altitude.
GEOGRAPHIC RANGE: White Stork lives in temperate and Mediterranean Europe, in South and North Africa, and eastern Asia.
It winters in Africa, Indies and southern Asia. Some populations are resident in their range if food resources are sufficient.

Behaviour : White Storks often migrate in family groups, but the rest of the year, it is rather solitary or in pair.
White Storks feed in flocks if they nest close to each other. They catch Amphibians in ponds and brackish water lagoons and all kinds of aquatic animals or insects, while walking slowly in shallow water, but they also consume small birds' eggs and chicks, as well as small mammals passing near their formidable bill.
It may remain long time stand on one leg preening its plumage, on a tree, a high building, on the ground or most often in its nest. White Stork walks slowly, in a stately way.
A male arriving to a nest starts to rebuild it immediately, and it waits for female arrival, a few days later. Pair bonds last all their life.
Male occupying and rebuilding the nest moves away very little, leaving it only for short periods. But other male may benefit from it for trying to appropriate the nest. Then, strong fights start, with violent bill's blows, and these fights often end with the death of one of the males. First occupier is almost always the winner.
Courtship displays include strange postures, on top of the usual bill slapping. Male throws its head backwards, on shoulders, fans its tail, with rump raised at back level, with continuous wing beats. Sometimes, female joins it in this display. These displays, although less obvious, continue during the laying period and are often observed at nest.
White Storks migratory behaviour varies with the age. Sexual maturity is reached at 4 or 5 years of age. The first year, the young storks practically don't return in their native place, but remain rather in the southern areas, and great numbers remain in their wintering areas. When they are 2 or 3 years old, birds observe same behaviour, but in restricted way. They perform short migrations driving them close to their native places where they will breed later.

Flight : White Stork performs slow wing beats, soars and ascents in the thermal currents until great height. Its flight is elegant, and it glides with very stiff wings. It has powerful and regular flight, with held neck and legs.

Reproduction-nesting : White Stork's nest is always situated in high and open places, easy to access for these large birds. We find them on towers, church towers, poles, trees where several nests can be close to each other. These nests are reused year after year. Storks add new materials, giving sometimes very huge nests.
Construction of a new nest may occupy the storks during one week. First, there are branches of approximately 4 cm in diameter forming the basic platform. Then, small twigs are added, as well as earth, mud, grasses, forming in the centre a depression lined with grass, moss, papers, pieces of rags, plastic, feathers and other various debris.
Both adults but mainly the male, build the nest, while the female weaves twigs and lines the interior. The laying starts at about mid-March or in April. The female usually lays 4 white glossy eggs, every two days.
If sometimes, laying is too important, eggs and even nestlings can be thrown out of the nest by adults, as a birth control, especially if food is not sufficient to feed the young (Jourdain).
Incubation starts with the first or the second egg laid, shared by both parents, female during the night, and pair during the day. Incubation lasts about 32 to 34 days.
Pair takes great care of the chicks, and an adult permanently remains at nest. They protect them from the sun by half-opening the wings to provide them shade. But danger comes from the strong rains which can drown the chicks if nest is not ventilated enough to drain off the water from this large bath-tub.
Both adults feed the young by regurgitation into the nest where chicks peck. When they are 2 to 3 weeks old, young are fed every two hours.
First flight takes place at about 55 to 60 days after hatching. Young fly with parents and move away, but they return at nest to sleep and to be fed as during the day.
Young reach their sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years of age, but some of them may breed at 3 years, sometimes even earlier, but sometimes the clutches don't live for lack of food, parents certainly missing maturity. This species produces only one brood per year.

Food habits : White Stork feeds on frogs, tadpoles, lizards, eels, earth worms, fish, grasshoppers, molluscs, snails, various shellfish, chicks and eggs of small birds, and small mammals.

Protection / threats : White Stork is one of the European species which suffers one of the faster declines in this century, even if in Southern part of its range (France and Spain) this tendency seems to be reversed. Decline of this species is mainly due to the lost of feeding and breeding areas, collisions and electrocutions with the power lines and catastrophic conditions in wintering areas in Africa. Use of pesticides is an important threat for this species, because they consume them by eating insects and rodents.

Other links :
Iucn
Birdlife