White Stork

The white stork is a large stork with mainly white plumage and black wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks and measure 100–115 cm from beak tip to tail end, with a wingspan of 155–215 cm. It is a carnivore, eating a wide range of insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and small birds. The young leave the nest 58–64 days after hatching and are fed for another 7–20 days (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa or on the Indian subcontinent; birds ringed in Germany have been recovered in western India at Bikaner and southern India at Tirunelveli. When migrating it avoids crossing the Mediterranean, because the thermals it soars on do not form over water. Each year the female can lay one clutch of usually four eggs, which hatch after 33–34 days; both parents incubate and feed the young. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of wetland that eats vertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).