White stork

White stork
Ciconia ciconia, Linnaeus, 1758

Over 40 thousand pairs of this species nest in Poland, while the world population counts about 200 thousand pairs. White storks are very attached to their nests; it is what binds them in pairs. If one of the birds is late back from Africa, its place is taken by another stork. The flights to wintering grounds are undertaken on two routes. The population from Western Europe flies to Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar, while the birds from Poland as well as the eastern and southern areas migrate through the Bosporus. The white stork is very keen on voles, mice, moles, snakes, lizards and big insects, more rarely it hunts fish, chicks of other birds and frogs.
Distribution: Europe, West Asia, South Africa

male / female
body length: 95–110 cm
wingspan: 170–220 cm
body mass: 2,5–4,4 kg