European White Stork

This is our stork, which nests, in particular, in Pairi Daiza. Measuring more than one metre, with a wingspan of more than two metres, this stork can fly, during its migration, as far as Africa in order to escape our winters.

The European White Stork is primarily carnivorous, but its menu is very varied: it hunts on the ground, in the low vegetation of the grassy plains and in the shallow water of the wetlands.

It has no fear of man and often nests on roofs of houses or other buildings, close to villages: one can easily observe its large nests of branches where, usually, four eggs are hatched each year.

Its proximity to man and the fact that it eats noxious creatures has made the European White Stork a symbol of good omen and wisdom, at the origin of some very old myths… and the subject of some well-known fables: Aesop’s “ The Fox and The Stork ”, for example. In the North of Europe a legend exists, that this bird brings babies, which is not proven!