White storks are large, elegant birds with bright white feathers, black wingtips, and vivid red beaks and legs. Standing up, a stork reaches about a metre tall — roughly the height of a seven-year-old child. They have a wingspan of up to two metres, which helps them soar gracefully on warm air currents during their long migration.
The journey a stork makes each year is incredible. In autumn it flies south — all the way to sub-Saharan Africa, sometimes reaching South Africa. Then in spring it turns around and flies all the way back to the same village, often to the exact same nest. Scientists have tracked storks travelling over 10,000 kilometres each way.
A stork's nest, called an eyrie, is enormous — built from sticks, grass, and sometimes even pieces of clothing or plastic that the stork collects. The nest gets bigger every year as the pair adds more material each spring. Some nests in Belarusian villages are over 100 years old and weigh hundreds of kilograms.
Storks eat frogs, fish, insects, and small mammals from the meadows and wetlands of Belarus. They are wonderful hunters, standing very still in shallow water and then striking suddenly with their beak. The Belarusian countryside, with its many lakes, rivers, and wet meadows, is perfect stork habitat.