Stork

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For other uses, see Stork (disambiguation).
Storks

Painted Stork
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Ciconiiformes
Family: Ciconiidae
Gray, 1840
Genera

See text.

Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills, belonging to the family Ciconiidae. They occur in most of the warmer regions of the world and tend to live in drier habitats than the related herons, spoonbills and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Storks have no syrinx and are mute, giving no bird call; bill-clattering is an important mode of stork communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, and small birds or mammals. There are 19 living species of storks in six genera.

Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires thermal air currents. Ottomar Anschütz's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders of the late 19th century. Storks are heavy with wide wingspans, and the Marabou Stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10.5 feet), shares the distinction of "longest wingspan of any land bird" with the Andean Condor.

Their nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some have been known to grow to over 2 m (6 feet) in diameter and about 3 m (10 feet) in depth. Storks were once thought to be monogamous, but this is only true to a limited extent. They may change mates after migrations, and migrate without them. They tend to be attached to nests as much as partners.

Storks' size, serial monogamy, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture.

Contents

  • 1 Etymology
  • 2 Systematics
  • 3 Symbolism of storks
  • 4 Mythology of storks
  • 5 References
  • 6 External links

[edit] Etymology

White Storks build large nests in high places.

The modern English word comes from Old English "storc", which is in turn related to "stark", probably in reference to the stiff or rigid posture of a European species, the White Stork.

Originally from Proto Germanic *sturkaz (compare Old Norse storkr,and Old High German storh, all meaning stork). Nearly every Germanic language has a form of this proto language to indicate the stork; in some languages cognate words are used that apparently originate in a euphemism and may signify the presence of a deep-seated taboo: compare "bear".

Language Word used for "Stork"
Icelandic storkur
Swedish stork
Norwegian stork
Danish stork
Frisian (W.) earrebarre*
Old Saxon odeboro,* stork
Low Saxon Germany: Aad(e)baar* (most dialects), Eebeer,* Stork;

Netherlands: aaiber(d),* aaiber(t),* eiber(t),* eileuver,* luibert,* ooievaar,* ooievaer,* ooievaor,* stork, störk, sturk(e), stoark
Dutch ooievaar*
Old German ōtibero,* storh
German Storch, dialectal Adebar*

Old Church Slavonic struku, Slovenian štorklja, Russian стерх (pronounced sterkh, meaning Siberian White Crane), Lithuanian dialectal word starkus (usually - gandras), Hungarian eszterag (rarely used; commonly gólya), Bulgarian щъркел ( roughly prononced as shtarkel ) and Albanian sterkjok are all Germanic loan-words.

Rarely the word's origin is linked to Greek torgos meaning "vulture".

The stork's folkloric role as a bringer of babies and harbinger of luck and prosperity may originate from the Netherlands and Northern Germany, where it is common in children's nursery stories.

[edit] Systematics

White Stork Ciconia ciconia
Yellow-billed stork - Mycteria ibis

FAMILY CICONIIDAE

Though some storks are highly threatened, no species or subspecies are known to have gone extinct in historic times. A Ciconia bone found in a rock shelter on Réunion was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the Mascarenes.

The fossil genus Ciconiopsis (Deseado Early Oligocene of Patagonia, Argentina) is usually tentatively assigned to this family. For more fossil storks, see the genus articles.

[edit] Symbolism of storks

The white stork is the symbol of The Hague in the Netherlands where about 25 percent of European storks breed. It is also a predominant symbol of the region of Alsace in eastern France.

In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. In Victorian times the details of human reproduction were difficult to approach, especially in reply to a child's query of "Where did I come from?"; "The stork brought you to us" was the tactic used to avoid discussion of sex. This habit was derived from the once popular superstition that storks were the harbingers of happiness and prosperity, and possibly from the habit of some storks of nesting atop chimneys, down which the new baby could be brought into the house.

The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak is common in popular culture. The small pink or reddish patches often found on a newborn child's eyelids, between the eyes,on the upper lip, and on the nape of the neck, which are clusters of developing veins that soon fade, are sometimes still called "stork bites".

Vlasic brand pickles in North America use this child-bearing stork as a mascot, merging the stork-baby mythology with the notion that pregnant women have an above-average appetite for pickles.

In Vietnam, stork symbolize the strenuousness of poor Vietnamese farmers and the diligence of Vietnamese women.

[edit] Mythology of storks

A White Stork in flight in Spain.

Most of these myths tend to refer to the White Stork.