The stork

📖 In short

The stork is a big bird with long thin legs, a long neck, a long sharp beak and broad, strong wings. It walks slowly through marshes and wet fields looking for frogs, fish and insects. There are 17 kinds of storks in the world.

🤩 Did you know?

14 kinds of storks live in the eastern half of the world, and 3 in the western half.
An old stork nest can weigh hundreds of kilograms, because it gets bigger every year.
A stork sometimes stands on one leg for hours.
In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia people love the stork and call it “bellarej”.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A nest on the rooftops

The white stork builds a big nest of branches on top of tall trees, minarets, electricity poles or the roofs of houses. The pair comes back to the same nest every year and repairs it.

🔍 A great traveler

The stork is a migrating bird that leaves Europe in autumn and flies thousands of kilometers to warm Africa, then returns in spring. It uses rising warm air to climb without getting tired.

💡 An almost silent bird

The white stork doesn't sing or call much; instead it clatters its beak fast, making a sound like clapping, especially when it greets its mate at the nest.