White Stork Day in Poland Date in the current year: May 31, 2025

The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large, elegant bird of the stork family, so named for its mostly white plumage, except for contrasting black feathers on its wings. It has a long, straight red bill and long reddish legs. When flying, the white stork extends its neck and legs fully, creating a graceful, gliding silhouette. The bird is large, often over a meter tall, and its wingspan can exceed two meters.

The white stork is a carnivorous bird that prefers to forage in meadows. Its diet includes a wide variety of animal prey, depending on season, location and availability: insects, earthworms, amphibians and reptiles, small mammals (moles, shrews, voles) and, less commonly, bird eggs, young birds, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and scorpions.

White storks are migratory birds whose breeding range includes most of Europe (especially central and eastern Europe), parts of western Asia, and North Africa. Their wintering range includes sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Indian subcontinent. White storks have two main migration routes, via the Bosporus or via the Strait of Gibraltar to avoid flying over the Mediterranean.

White storks have been closely associated with human settlements for centuries and have mostly positive cultural connotations. In ancient Greece and Rome, for example, they were seen as models of parental and filial devotion. Muslims believed that storks made a pilgrimage to Mecca during their annual migration. In many European countries, it is believed that storks bring babies to new parents.

Poland is widely regarded as the European stronghold of the white stork: it is estimated that more than 50,000 breeding pairs nest in the country and that 25% of the world’s white stork population is concentrated in Poland. The village of Żywkowo is the most popular of Poland’s so-called stork villages: with a population of about 30 people, it is home to more than 40 stork nests and about 160 storks during the breeding season.

Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the white stork as a species of least concern, its population has been declining since the 19th century due to agricultural changes and industrialization, which have reduced its breeding grounds. The main threats to the white stork are habitat loss due to the conversion of meadows to arable land and the drainage of wetlands, pesticide poisoning, injuries from hay mowers and overhead power lines.

In Poland, the white stork is under strict legal protection. To highlight the importance of its protection, the Polish Society for Nature Conservation “pro Natura” established White Stork Day in 2003. The main aim of the holiday is to educate the public about these amazing birds and the role they play in Polish culture and ecology, as well as to draw attention to the need to protect this species.