Poland is the kingdom of stork. There is no other country with more stork residents per square kilometre. As indicated by the latest statistics, there are 40.900 stork couples nesting in our country. Moreover, every year almost 100 thousand young birds hatch and are brought up in Poland. more »

White Stork - fact sheet

Order: Ciconiiformes
Family: Ciconiidae
Genus/Species: Ciconia ciconia ciconia

Description: White Storks are tall (1 m., 2.3-4.4 kg) long-necked wading birds with long bare red legs and a straight pointed red bill. The white plumage of the head, neck, and body contrasts with the black wing feathers highlighted with a sheen of purple and green iridescence. A small patch of bare black skin surrounds their brown eyes. Sexes are similar in appearance, though males are slightly larger.

Diet: White Storks are highly opportunistic 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. Foraging storks search for prey visually while walking deliberately with bill pointed toward the ground. When prey is spotted, they cock their necks back, then jab the bill forward to grasp their victim.

Reproduction: White Storks form loose informal colonies while breeding. Several pairs may nest closely together within sight and sound of one another while appearing completely oblivious to their neighbors. Though storks form monogamous pairs for the duration of the breeding season, they do not migrate or over-winter together. If the same pair reforms in successive years it is largely due to their strong attachment to their nest site.

Males usually arrive at the nest-site first. A male will greet a newly arriving female with the Head-Shaking Crouch display, as he 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.

Nests are huge and bulky, constructed of branches and sticks and lined with twigs, grasses, sod, rags, and paper. Particularly old nests have grown to over 2 m in diameter and nearly 3 m in depth. Some nests have been in continuous use for hundreds of years. Both sexes participate in nest construction with the male bringing most of the material.

European Storks have been building their nests on man-made structures since the Middle Ages. They can be found on rooftops, towers, chimneys, telephone-poles, walls, haystacks, and specially constructed nest towers. Many homeowners will add embellishments such as wooden wagon wheels to old chimneys to encourage storks to nest on their houses. Nests can also be found in trees, on cliff-ledges, or occasionally on the ground.

The female usually lays 3-5 eggs, more rarely up to seven. Parents share incubation duties for 33-34 days. Young chicks are covered with white down and have black bills. Both parents feed the young on the nest until they fledge at 8-9 weeks of age. Fledglings may continue to return to the nest site each evening to beg for food from their parents. Young birds reach sexual maturity in their fourth year. Banding records indicate that wild birds can live and reproduce successfully past 30 years of age.

Where do storks live?

Poland is the kingdom of White Stork. There is no other country with more stork residents per square kilometre. As indicated by the latest statistics, there are 40.900 stork couples nesting in our country. Moreover, every year almost 100 thousand young birds hatch and are brought up in Poland.

Every year 41 thousand stork couples, out of 160 thousand living all over the world, come to Poland. Thus, every fourth stork is Polish! Most of them live by rivers and lakes in Warmia, Mazury Lake District and Podlasie - east of the country. This year's record goes to Zywkowo village in Mazury Lake District, where 45 couples decided to set for summer and autumn. Since the village was open to tourists in 1999, the place has been visited by about 2 thousand people from all over the world.

The majority of so called "stork villages", i.e. villages with more then 10 stork nests, may be found in north-east Poland. In southern Podlasie there are over 1300 stork nests. In Lwowiec, near Ketrzyn, there are 40 nests. In Lejdy near Bartoszyce there are 8 nests on just one farm, half of them on the same barn. There may even be found villages with more storks than people!

Klopot, 60 km from Zielona Gora, is yet another stork village. Ornithologists question themselves why storks have chosen this little village as their habitat. Visitors to Klopot may check on the White Stork Museum - the only such place in Poland and one of a few in Europe.

W żadnym innym kraju nie gnieździ się tak wiele bocianów jak w Polsce. Ostatnie Międzynarodowe Liczenie Bociana Białego w Polsce wykazało gniazdowanie na terenie naszego kraju 40.900 bocianich par. Niemal co roku wylatuje z ich gniazd niemal 100.000 młodych ptaków. więcej »

O bocianach

Bocian biały (Ciconia ciconia) jest ptakiem chronionym z rodziny bocianowatych. Zamieszkuje tereny środkowej i wschodniej Europy, Półwysep Pirenejski, Półwysep Bałkański, a także północną Afrykę, Azję Mniejszą i Azję środkową.

Osiąga 100 cm długości i 200 cm rozpiętości skrzydeł. Samica jest nieco mniejsza od samca. Upierzenie obu płci jest jednakowe - głowa, tułów i brzuch białe, lotki skrzydeł czarne, dziób i nogi w kolorze czerwonym.

Występuje na nizinnych terenach wilgotnych, z grupami drzew i niezbyt wysoką roślinnością, często w pobliżu osad ludzkich. Odżywia się drobnymi bezkręgowcami, rybami, płazami, małymi gadami oraz drobnymi gryzoniami. W Polsce największe zagęszczenie populacji bociana stwierdzono na obszarach północno-wschodnich i wschodnich.

Gnieździ się na wysokich drzewach, często na słupach telegraficznych, kominach i dachach. Gniazdo, kolistego kształtu, osiąga 1,5 m średnicy. Samiec bociana białego przylatuje do gniazdowiska w marcu lub kwietniu i zaczyna naprawiać i powiększać ubiegłoroczne gniazdo. Samica przylatuje kilka dni później. Znosi 3 - 6 jaj w dwudniowych odstępach, pisklęta wykluwają się z reguły po 35 dniach wysiadywania.

Biało opierzone młode pozostają w gnieździe ok. 60 dni, dopiero w ostatnim tygodniu odważając się jednak na pierwsze próby lotu. Pełną samodzielność uzyskują po 70 dniach.

Bociany zimują w południowej Afryce. Drogę długości 8 000 kilometrów przebywa w ciągu czterech miesięcy, pokonując dziennie maksymalnie 200 kilometrów. Podczas lotu wiosłującego wykonuje prawie dwa uderzenia skrzydłami w czasie jednej sekundy.

Jajo
kolor		białe z połyskiem
długość		74 mm
szerokość		52 mm
liczba jaj		2-5 (wyjątkowo 1 lub 6)
okres wysiadywania		33-34 dni
Pisklę
masa po wykluciu		70-77 g
przebywanie w gineździe		54-63 dni
puch		biały
nogi i dziób		ciemnoszare
Ptak dorosły
rozpiętość skrzydeł		2 m
długość ciała		1 m
wysokość		80 cm
masa ciała		3-4 kg
długość dzioba		16-20 cm
różnice płci		nieznaczne
Gniazdo
średnica		1-1,5 m (max 2 m)
wysokość		zwykle 0,5-1,5 m
masa		zwykle ok. 500 kg
materiał		patyki, siano, perz, inne
Gdzie jeszcze mieszkają bociany

Polska jest europejską ostoją bociana białego. Co roku przylatuje do nas ok. 41 tysięcy par ze 160 tysięcy żyjących na świecie. Znaczna część polskiej populacji bociana żeruje w dolinach i rozlewiskach rzek Warmii, Mazur i Podlasia.

Najwięcej bocianów spotkać można w Polsce pn - wsch. Tzw. "bocianie wsie", czyli takie, w których jest od 10 do kilkudziesięciu gniazd, zgrupowały się właśnie w północno-wschodnich krańcach Polski. We wsi Lwowiec, niedaleko Kętrzyna, bociany tworzą kolonię liczącą ok. 40 zajętych gniazd. Zdarzają się miejscowości, gdzie bocianich gniazd jest więcej niż gospodarstw domowych. W miejscowości Lejdy k. Bartoszyc w jednym z gospodarstw jest aż 8 gniazd, w tym 4 na jednej stodole.

Także na terenach południowego Podlasia istnieje ponad 1300 gniazd bociana białego. Najwięcej bocianich gniazd na południowym Podlasiu znajduje się na terenach nadbużańskich oraz Pojezierza Łęczyńsko-Włodawskiego. Z licznej obecności bocianów słyną takie miejscowości, jak Mosty, Kostomłoty, Sosnowica, Tyśmienica czy Ostrów koło Janowa Podlaskiego.

Do niedawna rekord dotyczący ilości zagęszczenia bocianich gniazd należy do warmińskiej wsi Żywkowo, gdzie znajduje się ich aż 45. Jest to niewątpliwa atrakcja turystyczna. Od czasu otwarcia tego miejsca dla turystów w kwietniu 1999 roku, Żywkowo odwiedza rocznie ok. 2 tys. osób z całego świata.

Obecnie największa bociania wioska w Polsce znajduje się w położonej zaledwie 60 km od Zielonej Góry miejscowości Kłopot. To mała, licząca ok. 200 mieszkańców wioska nieopodal Cybinki. Dlaczego bociany decydują się tak licznie gniazdować właśnie w tym miejscu nie wiedzą nawet ornitolodzy. Niedawno z inicjatywy LOP otworzono tu pierwsze w Polsce Muzeum Bociana Białego - pierwsze takie muzeum w Polsce i jedno z nielicznych w Europie. Podziwiać tu można eksponaty związane z życiem i ochroną bociana białego - obrazki, pocztówki, talerze, butelki itp., oczywiście wszystko z wizerunkiem bociana.

STORKS - POLISH BIRDS

When storks are coming back to Poland from their winter quarters in South Africa they have to cover a distance of 10 thousand kilometres, a route full of dangers. They fly over the Sudan, Egypt, Asia Minor, Straits of Bosphorus and Bulgaria. This is the route covered by Central European storks, while those living in the West, beyond the Elbe River, fly over the Gibraltar. They do not feel attracted by vast expanses of the Mediterranean Sea - flying over the land is safer.

Over 30 thousand couples of storks arrive in Poland every year, at the end of March. About one third of the whole European population of storks live in Poland, the last country in which they appear in such big numbers. In the West white storks are at the edge of extinction. There are about 3 thousand storks in Germany, 318 in Austria, and as little as only 30 in the whole territory of France. 15 thousand storks live in Ukraine and 10 thousand couples in Belarus. Belgian and Sweden do not have any storks at all, while Switzerland has started to import them from Algeria.

Twenty years ago there were about 40 thousand stork couples nesting in Poland, the biggest number in the world. In 1984 that number was reduced to 30 thousands only. Recently a special foundation named "Pro Natura" was called into being, with a main purpose of organising the protection of storks in Poland. Storks are the "most Polish" birds beside white eagles (a white eagle, another rarity of the Polish animal world, is a symbol of the Polish nationhood and entered the Polish national coat of arms). "To my country dear, where a great sinner is who dares to bring damage to a stork's net on the pear-tree, a stork so helpful..." - wrote a famous Polish poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid - In old Poland appearance of a new stork's net promised happiness, prosperity and fecundity. Children believed that they were brought by storks to their parents and damsels used to cover eyes when seeing them for protection against untimely progeniture. The birds join in couples for just one summer. The first to come back to the country of origin is the male. He verifies if the neighbourhood can offer enough food and if winter has not damaged the nest. He fixes, repairs and extends the old household. If he decides to make a new home it is usually not more than 50 km from the nest in which he was born. A female arrives a few days later. They fly together, make long walks in meadows, wave wings and enjoy old country. Once they settle in a renovated nest they start with nuptial ceremonies, crowned with laying 3-5 eggs. Incubation lasts about a month. Then the young storks live about 2-3 months with their parents. Not later than in mid-August they leave their parental nest and go to wet meadows. There, they gather in big flocks which are sometimes made up of several dozens of birds. That flock will make together a long flight to Africa.

One stork consumes about 100 full-grown insects daily. A stork family needs about 200-250 kilograms of food in one season. Beside insects they also eat field-voles, mice, frogs, fish and earth-worms. People say that old storks are cruel. When they expect a dry summer, throw some young ones out of the nest. They make a calculation of how many frogs, insects and rodents they can catch to feed the progeniture. Storks can foresee a dry summer as early as at the beginning of spring. As to their cruelty there is no unanimity of opinion among specialists. Some ornithologists explain the fact as follows: organisms of young storks may become a place where dangerous parasites from frogs develop and cause a disease. When parents detect it, they remove the infected young bird from the nest. Placing a nest is another mystery. Nobody knows why storks in Southern Poland live mainly on trees and in the North - on building roofs. About 10 percent of all country population of storks found abode in the region of Lublin. They took a special liking for wetlands by the rivers Bug, Wieprz and Vistula, and Łączyńsko-Włodawskie Lake Region. The oldest nest in the area, located on a barn's roof in the community of Horodło, is one hundred years old. In Dubienko, very unusually, we can see two nests on one barn roof. More and more often it happens that birds cannot find a suitable place for,their "households" weighing over a thousand kilograms. Heads of young trees are too weak while old and shapely old trees became very rare. Troubled storks seek abode on top of telegraph and electric power poles and perish from electrocution - alarm ecologists. To avoid it, power engineers a sort of "legalise" uninvited dwellers and install special platforms on the poles. Storks live with people and remember their place of origin for the rest of their life. They come to their old nests despite all dangers. In the community of Jeziorany near Lublin local dwellers observed last year a stork with an African spear stuck in the neck. In recent times we could observe growing number of stork families in several regions of Poland. Reduced land reclamation works and less fertilisers allowed to restore some traditional abodes of storks. The number of storks in a lagging zone of the Słowiński National Park near Łeba has grown in recent years by 30 per cent. An all-European census of storks is organised every ten years.

Last year the census was carried on for the fifth time already. The "Pro Natura" Foundation received 13,000 USD from the UN Global Environmental Found, within the framework of Small Grants Programme, for reckoning the storks. The census reveals that the number of storks in Poland has increased. Members of the "Pro Natura" do not only count storks, they also raise special platforms for their nests. In the voivodship of Warsaw only they built over a dozen artificial nests last year.

Not everywhere in the world people are so friendly with storks. In Lebanon hunters shoot at them for leisure. In the Sudan storks are hunted for by hungry people. In Poland, despite the fact that storks only promise now opulence in progeniture, people never happen to raise hand against them and treat them in a very friendly and homely manner.

A large bird with a majority of white color. The beak and legs - red. When in the air, the neck and head are stretched forward (unlike the heron); legs reach far beyond the tail.

Morphological features do not allow for distinguishing males and females from each other. The young with early feather have red and brown beaks and legs. Nestlings are covered with white fluff, thick as fur. Old birds clatter vigorously, throwing heads toward the backs; they do not produce any other sounds. They live in moist and muddy meadow areas in river valleys, in the neighborhood of lakes and ponds, and swampy meadows.

Breeding period: April - July.

The nest is big, made of sticks and tree branches, usually on roof tops, unused high factory chimneys, and on trees. 3 or 4 white eggs are laid. Feeding of nestlings on the nest lasts for about 2 months.

Food: frogs, fish, snakes, and small mammals.
A migratory bird. Flights: February - April and August-September, in exceptional cases stays for winter.

 

---