8 May: Storks

Today is Stork Day in Ribe, Denmark. Here are 10 things you might not know about storks.

1. There are 19 or so species of stork in the world. They belong to the Ciconiidae family, and not all of them are White.
2. Most storks don't have voice boxes and so don't make any vocal sounds. They can, however, clatter their bills.
3. Their wing spans can be huge. In the case of the Marabou stork, it can be over ten feet/3.2m.
4. They are carnivorous and eat insects, fish, small mammals, amphibians and reptiles. They don't eat plants, except by accident.
5. European white storks migrate from Northern Europe to Africa in the winter, covering distances of over 12,000 miles in a journey that can last 49 days. It was these storks and their epic migrations which gave rise to the legend that they deliver babies. The fable arose in Germany during the Victorian era, because when the storks migrated, they'd be gone for nine months and then return.
6. Storks build huge nests and a mating pair will use the same nest over and over again. It's even possible their offspring will carry on using it after they are gone – in Croatia, there is a village called Cigoc, nicknamed the European Stork Village, where there are stork nests which have been in use for hundreds of years. Both stork parents take turns in incubating the eggs and in bringing food for the chicks. That said, if a chick is weak or sickly the parents will throw it out of the nest.
7. Stork's nests were considered to be lucky in ancient Rome. If a stork built a nest on your roof it meant your family was blessed by the goddess Venus. In Germany and the Netherlands, people also thought a stork's nest was lucky and would actively encouraged the birds to take up residence on top of their houses.
8. There are several collective nouns for a group of storks but the most commonly used ones are a muster or a phalanx.
9. A stork can live for 20 to 30 years, leading to them being associated with longevity in China.
10. In Christianity, they represent purity, possibly because they'll fight and eat Snakes, often associated with evil.

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