Black stork - description, habitat, interesting facts

Storks are majestic proud birds living for a long time next to people. The family of storks has 18 species and is divided into 9 genera, they live in all corners of the Earth, except for deserts. It will be a black and white stork.

Description

The black and white stork is listed in the Red Book. Body length is 105-110 cm, wingspan - 215-220 cm, weight - up to 3.5 kg. The tail length is moderate; the end is slightly rounded. The black-and-white stork is covered with black feathers with violet-green, reddish or metallic shimmer, has white breasts and a belly. It resembles a dress coat dressed on a white shirt from the side. Feet and places not covered in feathers are red. The beak is long, 2 times longer than the head, with a sharp end. It has a dark color, only in chicks and adults at the time of mating, it acquires a red color.

Habitat and habitat

Storks live almost all over the world, in every corner of the Earth, with the exception of deserts. In Russia, black and white storks live in all areas, most often settle in Primorye, the Far East, in the regions of Kaliningrad and the Ciscaucasia. On the territory of Belarus there are many marshy forests, ideal for housing in all respects, there are especially many storks. The government even decided to protect the territory most densely populated by storks. Also, these birds are found in large quantities in China, Poland, Italy, in East and West Germany.

The black stork is rather shy and very careful, prefers to settle as far away from people and animals as possible, choosing deaf forest corners, closer to swamps, lakes and ponds. Nests are arranged on the tops of trees at a height of 10-15 meters, branches are used as building material, which are laid in the proper way, for bonding - clay, turf. The diameter of such dwellings can be up to one and a half meters, and the weight can reach half a ton. They live in them for many years, often the nests are inherited by children who also live in them every year, acquiring offspring.

Wintering
Black storks are migratory birds, especially those who chose moderately warm zones for living, fly away to the warm lands for wintering. Go on a journey in late August - early September, keeping all the way closer to the water. For wintering, choose the African continent or India. Although black storks lead a separate lifestyle, eschewing other birds, they often go on a long journey along with storks of other species. Wide wings make 2-3 flaps per second. This allows you to move with considerable speed - up to 40 kilometers per hour. For planning, they use ascending flows - this allows you to stay in the air for a long time, without getting tired and give rest to the wings. Such devices help to overcome up to 200 kilometers per day.

Birds get to wintering places by the beginning of December and evenly populate the entire territory where they live until the beginning of spring, when it is time to go home. Returning, storks fly to their nests, restore order in them, repair. Birds have a strong affection for their home.

Enemies

The black stork in nature has no enemies. The only ones who can sometimes attack are the eagles. Sometimes crocodiles. But this rarely happens. The main enemy is man. So, in Italy at the end of the 17th century, storks were completely exterminated.

Nutrition

Storks prefer food of animal origin, although they do not differ in particular legibility in food. They feed mainly on fish and animals living in the water. But during flights and drying out of reservoirs in extreme heat, when there are few fish and amphibians, you have to eat other foods. For example:

1. Small mammals - mice, rats, ermines, rodents.
2. Amphibians - frogs, various types of lizards, toads.
3. Insects - locusts, grasshoppers, bear, May beetles. Caught larvae of these pests also go to food.
4. Wild birds, in villages and villages are caught and domestic - chickens, ducklings.

Deforestation, as well as dehydration of meadows and swamps, causes storks considerable harm, because the food supply is being destroyed.

A little interesting about black storks

1. In China, from ancient times it was believed that a stork means a happy carefree old age.
2. Many people in Europe consider the stork a symbol of caring for elderly parents, because adult birds do not give an abyss to the elderly, unable to get food for relatives, feeding them.
3. The legend that there will always be a good harvest where the stork lives is widespread. Therefore, storks are very revered in villages and villages, residents strengthen the wheels of old carts on the roofs so that the stork equips them with a nest. If the feathered tenant suddenly flew away from this place, then they thought it was a punishment for a sinful life, waited for the collapse of various troubles, troubles and misfortunes on the residents of this house.
4. If the couple flies back and begins to live in the nest again, then a child will appear in the family occupying the house. It is quite possible, from this belief, that the omen has come that the stork brings children.
5. Storks live in nature a little more than twenty years, in captivity - a little longer. There have been cases when storks survived to 31 years.
6. Sometimes storks carry out some kind of sweeping in their ranks, getting rid of weak and sick relatives - they kill them. Most often this is done before the flights. Maybe there is a basis for such cruelty: weak individuals will not be able to fly to the right place, while they will be a brake for the pack, delaying it.
7. In addition to beauty and grace, these birds are distinguished by the assistance provided to humans in agriculture - they, in search of food, destroy plant pests.
8. Black storks are good indicators of ecology. Seeing that a bird of this species is feeding on a pond, you can be sure that the water is clean from pollution and chemicals.
9. The female lays three to five eggs. Both parents take part in the incubation of the masonry; the incubation of eggs continues from 32 to 38 days. If it becomes hot in the nest, the birds begin to spray the eggs with water so that they cool. Both parents also take part in feeding - they burp food, and chicks pick it up from the bottom. At two months old, children begin to learn to fly, and when they reach the age of three months, they begin an independent life.
10. The structure of the vocal apparatus of storks is such that they are not able to make sounds, they only know how to squeak quietly. Therefore, they communicate with each other with the help of hissing and clicking with their beaks.
11. The language of white and black storks is different, therefore they cannot understand each other, although they are representatives of the same species. Italian scientists have attempted to cross these two subspecies - the attempt was unsuccessful.
12. If the male is free, then his first female, flying to the cry, becomes his wife.
13. Belarusians made the stork one of the symbols of their country. One of the tales of local folklore tells about the appearance of these birds. God handed the man a big bag full of snakes and ordered him to be thrown away into the sea. But the man was curious, he untied the bag and began to look into it. Snakes got free and spread to all corners of the earth, God punished man, turning him into a stork. Now the unfortunate man wanders from swamp to swamp, killing snakes and, until he catches the last one, he cannot become a man back.

Video: Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)