A large bird, native to warm regions worldwide; long legs, neck, and long stout bill; flies with neck and legs outstretched; inhabits forest, dry country, or water margins; eats invertebrates, small vertebrates, or carrion. The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is the stork of fable, a summer visitor to Europe, which prefers to nest on buildings; its numbers in N Europe diminished in the 20th-c. (Family: Ciconiidae, 17 species.)
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See text. Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Storks are heavy with wide wingspans, and the Marabou Stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10.5 feet), shares the distinction of "longest wingspan of any land bird" with the Andean Condor.
* Dutch is an exception within the Germanic language group. The fable that babies are brought by storks is mainly from Dutch and Northern German nursery stories, no doubt from the notion that storks nesting on one's roof meant good luck, often in the form of family happiness. SpeciesFamily Ciconiidae Genus Mycteria Milky Stork (Mycteria cinerea) Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) Painted Stork ( Mycteria leucocephala) Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) Genus Anastomus Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans African Openbill Stork, Anastomus lamelligerus Genus Ciconia Abdim's Stork, Ciconia abdimii Woolly-necked Stork, Ciconia episcopus Storm's Stork, Ciconia stormi Maguari Stork, Ciconia maguari Oriental White Stork, Ciconia boyciana White Stork Ciconia ciconia Black Stork Ciconia nigra Genus Ephippiorhynchus Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus Saddle-billed Stork, Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis Genus Jabiru Jabiru Jabiru mycteria Genus Leptoptilos Lesser Adjutant, Leptoptilos javanicus Greater Adjutant, Leptoptilos dubius Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferusSymbolism of storksThe white stork is the symbol of The Hague in the Netherlands and the unofficial symbol of Poland, where about 25 percent of European storks breed. In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak is common in popular culture. Vlasic brand pickles in North America use this child-bearing stork as a mascot. Mythology of storksMost of these myths tend to refer to the White Stork. The ba was the unique individual character of each human being: a stork with a human head was an image of the ba-soul, which unerringly migrates home each night, like the stork, to be reunited with the body during the Afterlife. The Hebrew word for stork was equivalent to "kind mother", and the care of storks for their young, in their highly visible nests, made the stork a widespread emblem of parental care. In popular Western culture, there is a common image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in cloths held in its beak; Though "Stork" is rare as an English surname, the Czech surname "Čapek" means "little stork". However, it is possible that there is confusion here between the White Stork and the more northerly-breeding Common Crane, which superficially resembles a stork but is completely unrelated. In Bulgarian folklore, the stork is a symbol of the coming spring (as this is the time when the birds return to nest in Bulgaria after their winter migration) and in certain regions of Bulgaria it plays a central role in the custom of Martenitsa: when the first stork is sighted it is time to take off the red-and-white Martenitsa tokens, for spring is truly come. |
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