Storks are amazing birds, to which numerous legends of different nations attribute amazing qualities. And storks there are many different species, sometimes completely different from each other.
Not all storks are harmless. For example, the storks that live in Africa are marabou – scavengers and predators. However, people there are used to them and do not pay more attention to the marab than we pay for sparrows and pigeons.
Living in the territory of Russia, white storks fly to Africa and India for the winter.
Storks eat not only insects and frogs – they effectively fight with poisonous snakes, for example, with vipers, which are also very much to taste for storks.
After wintering at the edge of the world, white storks return to their nests and put them in order. These birds are extremely attached to their homes.
The oldest known nest of storks, in which many generations of these birds lived, was inhabited by them during the year 381.
The diameter of the nest of a white stork can be up to one and a half meters, and the weight up to 200-250 kg.
The free male of the stork “takes in the wives” the first female, arriving to it in the nest.
Storks hatch eggs in turns – the female is engaged this night, and the male – in the afternoon.
Cases of fire of nests of storks, and at the same time, the buildings on which they were located were recorded. This was due to the fact that storks as a building material picked up smoldering branches from the fires and put them in the nest.
Weak and sickly nestlings storks are ruthlessly thrown out of the nest.
To learn the flight, the stork chicks begin at the age of two months.
The only country in which hunting for storks has always been forbidden is Japan.
The wingspan of the white stork can reach two meters.
The population of storks in Italy was completely exterminated in the 17th century.
Going to wintering in the warm regions, storks cover a distance of up to ten thousand kilometers.
Storks are asleep, standing on one leg, and they change their legs without waking up.
The storks are sometimes attacked by eagles.
Most of all white storks live on the territory of Russia.
A curious fact is that black storks settle far away from people, while whites, on the contrary, are as close as possible.
Storks communicate with each other, hissing and clicking with their beak, as they can not “utter” any sounds except quiet peep, because of the peculiarities of their structure.
