White+Storks

=  **White Stork**   =

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The white stork, or its scientific name, Ciconia ciconia lives across Europe and Asia. In the winters it migrates south to South Africa. The White stork measures about 100 cm tall. This bird is all white with the exception of its black flight feathers, dark red bill, and reddish legs. The white stork is a long-necked wading bird. The white stork is not a silent bird. As it rapidly clatters its mandibles together, they produce a loud machine-gun-like sound. [|Hear the White Stork now.] **What do they eat?** White Storks are feeders who will consume a wide variety of prey items including insects, frogs, toads, tadpoles, fish, rodents, snakes, lizards, earthworms, mollusks, crustaceans, and, rarely, the chicks or eggs of ground-nesting birds. Storks search for prey visually while walking with bill pointed toward the ground. When their prey is spotted, they cock their necks back, then jab the bill forward grasping their prey. While breeding, storks form loose colonies. Storks form monogamous pairs for the duration of the breeding season only. Males will arrive at the nest-site first. "Then he will greet an arriving female with the Head-Shaking Crouch display. This is when a stork lowers himself on the nest into the incubating posture, erects his neck ruff and shakes his head from side to side. If the male accepts the new arrival as his mate they will cement their pair bond with an Up-Down display. In this display the birds hold their wings away from their sides and pump their heads up and down. This is often accompanied by bill-clattering. Shorter courtships may indicate that the male and female were paired in previous years." A female stork usually lays 3-5 eggs. Both parents share nesting duties for 33-34 days. Both parents feed the young on the nest. Young storks stay in the nest until 8-9 weeks of age. These birds can live and reproduce successfully past 30 years of age. The White Stork nests are huge and bulky. They are made of branches and sticks and lined with twigs, grasses, sod, rags, and paper. Nests may be reused year after year and the birds will add to the nests year after year. Both sexes participate in nest construction with the male bringing most of the material. When the nest is complete it is often signaled by the addition of one leafy branch to the edge of the nest. Storks living in European cities have been building their nests on man-made structures since the Middle Ages. They can be found anywhere from rooftops, towers, chimneys, telephone-poles, walls, and haystacks. Many homeowners will encourage storks to nest on their houses by adding materials such as wooden wagon wheels to a chimney. The legend that the European White Stork brings babies is believed to have originated in northern Germany, perhaps because storks arrive on their breeding grounds nine months after midsummer. Northern Europeans of Teutonic ancestry encouraged storks to nest on their homes hoping they would bring fertility and prosperity(Smithsonian National Zoo).
 * What is a White Stork**?
 * What noise do they make?**
 * Breeding**
 * What are the Storks nests made of?**
 * The Legend**

//European White Stork//. Smithsonian National Zoo. Retrieved 28 July, 2008, from __http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Birds/Facts/FactSheets/fact-europwhitestork.cfm __
 * || [[image:http://www.junglewalk.com/shop/JWimages/SHT.gif width="5" height="5"]][[image:http://www.junglewalk.com/animal-pictures/5/Stork-15950.jpg width="183" height="271" align="center" caption="White Stork" link="http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/Stork-sounds.htm"]] ||
 * ^  ||^   || **[[image:http://www.junglewalk.com/shop/JWimages/SHCR.gif width="5" height="5"]]References:**

White Stork. Jungle Walk. Retrieved, 29 July, 2008, from http://www.virtual-bird.com/songs/ciconia-ciconia.mp3

White Stork. Jungle Walk. Retrieved, 29 July, 2008, from http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/Stork-sounds.htm ||