15 March 2022

White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are large iconic birds that spend the winter in Africa and nest in Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. Famous for the legend that they bring babies, storks migrate long distances by soaring on thermals on 5 to 7-foot wing spans.

Storks avoid crossing open water that lacks thermals and are rare in the British Isles. Until 2020 they had not nested in the UK since 1416 when the last pair used the top of St Giles High Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. That changed in 2016 when the White Stork Project decided to reintroduce them to Britain. Since then they have released 166 juvenile storks brought in from Poland.

In 2020, for the first time in over 600 years, a pair of white storks nested successfully in the UK. This pair, which are part of the reintroduction program, nest at Knepp Castle in Horsham.

In this video they build the nest and pair bond by bill-clacking.

Introducing the UK’s FIRST live-stream white stork nest-cam! In partnership with Wildlife Windows, with generous support from The John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust, @ProjectStork have installed a LIVE-STREAM camera on the stork nest on Knepp Castle.https://t.co/hFJFTpMnga pic.twitter.com/4sdThDtBUK

— Knepp Wilding (@KneppWilding) March 14, 2022

Right now the storks are gathering sticks and preparing to nest. Watch as they raise a family, live at the White Stork Project. (Note: Britain is 4 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. This is a good site to watch in the morning.)

Instead of bringing human babies these storks will bring their own.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Shutterstock; click on the captions to see the originals)