Friday Funnies

Storks are commonly seen nesting in large numbers in Portugal — who knew?

We do now as it seems that the country has become home to a large population of white storks (Ciconia ciconia). Their numbers have increased greatly following legal protection granted in the 1980s. In 2024, estimates were that some 20,000 pairs of white storks nest in Portugal annually, nearly doubling in 10 years. 

No, they're not delivering babies despite a slight population growth in the country.

How and when did that story start?

There's a number of versions, here's a couple. 

Internet source

One popular myth dates back to Greek mythology and the story of a vengeful goddess, Hera, who became jealous of a beautiful queen, Gerana. who was having an affair with her husband. After Hera transformed her into a crane, the heartbroken Gerana unwilling to part with her child, picked up the baby wrapped in a blanket and flew away with it in her beak. Over time and legend, the crane transformed into a stork.

According to another one from medieval times, storks migrating from Africa to northern Europe in springtime, often coincided with the time babies were born. Storks built large nests on rooftops and became associated with families. This connection led to folklore that the storks delivered newborns which provided a simple, magical, answer to children who asked how babies arrived in their homes.

Myths and folklore aside, multiple stork nests like the one below were commonplace along routes that our tour bus traveled in Portugal. 

A nesting of white storks in Portugal

While storks were originally a migratory bird, many now forgo the long journey south and instead, winter-over in Portugal. They survive on a diet of landfill waste and also prey on fish, small mammals and insects. Certainly, the weather is better too.

An even large nesting of white storks in Portugal

The above photo shows impressive multiple nests especially on tall structures like power towers. Although White Storks have no voice box, their mating display is a noisy bill-clattering (beak clacking) that's been compared to distant machine gun fire. A group of storks (or muster) can make quite a racket which, thankfully, we never heard. 

Just 🤔 wondering — Were you ever told the stork delivering babies story?

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

We start our holiday 🦃  road trip on Sunday