Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked

wading bird 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s with long, stout bills. They belong to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and

ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...

es, but those families have been moved to other orders. Storks dwell in many regions and tend to live in drier habitats than the closely related herons, spoonbills and

es; they also lack the

powder down The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator an ...

that those groups use to clean off

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

slime. Bill-clattering is an important mode of

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...

s, small

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s and small mammals. There are 19 living

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of storks in six genera. Various terms are used to refer to groups of storks, two frequently used ones being a ''muster'' of storks and a ''phalanx'' of storks. Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires

thermal A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

air currents.

Ottomar Anschütz Ottomar Anschütz (16 May 1846, in Lissa – 30 May 1907, in Berlin) was a German inventor, photographer, and chronophotographer Career Anschütz studied photography between 1864 and 1868 under the well-known photographers Ferdinand Beyrich ( ...

's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of

Otto Lilienthal Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making ...

's experimental gliders of the late nineteenth century. Storks are heavy, with wide

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

s: the marabou stork, with a wingspan of and weight up to , joins the

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds. Their

nests A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

are often very large and may be used for many years. Some nests have been known to grow to over in diameter and about in depth. All storks were once thought to be monogamous, but this is only partially true. Some species may change mates after migrations, and may migrate without a mate. Storks' large size,

serial monogamy Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time ( serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., pol ...

, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

and culture.

Morphology

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) (12011503884)

Storks range in size from the marabou, which stands tall and can weigh , to the Abdim's stork, which is only high and weighs only . Their shape is superficially similar to the herons, with long legs and necks, but they are more heavy-set. There is some

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

(differences between males and females) in size, with males being up to 15% bigger than females in some species (for example the saddle-billed stork), but almost no difference in appearance. The only difference is in the colour of the

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

of the two species in the genus ''

Ephippiorhynchus '' Ephippiorhynchus'' is a small genus of storks. It contains two living species only, very large birds more than 140 cm tall with a 230–270 cm wingspan. Both are mainly black and white, with huge bills. The sexes of these species are ...

''. The bills of storks are large to very large, and vary considerably between the genera. The shape of the bills is linked to the diet of the different species. The large bills of the ''Ciconia'' storks are the least specialised. Larger are the massive and slightly upturned bills of the ''Ephippiorhynchus'' and the jabiru. These have evolved to hunt for fish in shallow water. Larger still are the massive daggers of the two adjutants and marabou (''Leptoptilos''), which are used to feed on carrion and in defence against other scavengers, as well as for taking other prey. The long, ibis-like downcurved bills of the ''Mycteria'' storks have sensitive tips that allow them to detect prey by touch (tactilocation) where cloudy conditions would not allow them to see it. The most specialised bills of any storks are those of the two openbills (''Anastomus.''), which as their name suggested is open in the middle when their bill is closed. These bills have evolved to help openbills feed on their only prey item, aquatic snails. Although it is sometimes reported that storks lack syrinxes and are mute, they do have syrinxes, and are capable of making some sounds, although they do not do so often. The syrinxes of storks are "variably degenerate" however, and the syringeal membranes of some species are found between tracheal rings or cartilage, an unusual arrangement shared with the ovenbirds.

Distribution and habitat

Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) - Flickr - Lip Kee (4)

Marabou stork at Etosha National Park, Namibia

Storks have a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, being absent from the poles, most of North America and large parts of Australia. The centres of stork diversity are in tropical Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with eight and six breeding species respectively. Just three species are present in the New World:

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is found ...

maguari stork The maguari stork (''Ciconia maguari'') is a large species of stork that inhabits seasonal wetlands over much of South America, and is very similar in appearance to the white stork; albeit slightly larger.King CE. 1988. An ethological comparison ...

and

jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has been reported as far north as Mississippi. ...

, which is the tallest flying bird of the Americas. Two species,

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

and

black stork The black stork (''Ciconia nigra'') is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Measuring on average from beak tip to end of tail with a wingspan, th ...

, reach Europe and western temperate Asia, while one species,

Oriental stork The Oriental stork (''Ciconia boyciana''; Japanese: コウノトリ ''Konotori'') is a large, white bird with black wing feathers in the stork family Ciconiidae. Taxonomy The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1873. It is close ...

, reaches temperate areas of eastern Asia, and one species,

black-necked stork The black-necked stork (''Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus'') is a tall long-necked wading bird in the stork family. It is a resident species across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia with a disjunct population in Australia. It lives in wetlan ...

, is found in Australasia.del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (1992). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions''. . Storks are more diverse and common in the tropics, and the species that live in temperate climates for the most part migrate to avoid the worst of winter. They are fairly diverse in their habitat requirements. Some species, particularly the '' Mycteria '' "wood storks" and ''

Anastomus The openbill storks or openbills are two species of stork (family '' Ciconiidae'') in the genus ''Anastomus''. They are large wading birds characterized by large bills, the mandibles of which do not meet except at the tip. This feature develops ...

'' openbills, are highly dependent on water and aquatic prey, but many other species are far less dependent on this habitat type, although they will frequently make use of it. Species like the marabou and Abdim's stork will frequently be found foraging in open grasslands of savannah. Preferred habitats include flooded grasslands, light woodland, marshes and paddyfields, wet meadows, river backwaters and ponds. Many species will select shallow pools, particularly when lakes or rivers are drying out, as they concentrate prey and make it harder for prey to escape, or when monsoonal rainfall increases water depth of larger waterbodies. Some species like the woolly-necked storks and lesser adjutant storks have adapted to changing crops of tropical agricultural landscapes showcasing behavioral plasticity that enables them to remain resident despite the transformations brought about by seasonal crops. In South Africa, the woolly-necked storks have adapted to artificial feeding and now largely nest on trees in gardens with swimming pools. Less typical habitats include the dense temperate forests used by European black storks, or the rainforest habitat sought by Storm's stork in South East Asia. They generally avoid marine habitats, with the exception of the lesser adjutant, milky stork and wood stork, all of which forage in mangroves, lagoons and estuarine mudflats. A number of species, especially woolly-necked storks, black-necked storks, Asian openbills and lesser adjutant Storks in south Asia, have adapted to highly modified human habitats, either for foraging or breeding or both. In the absence of persecution several species breed close to people, and species such as the marabou, greater adjutant, and white stork will feed at landfill sites.

Migration and movements

Abdim's Stork (Ciconia abdimii) (7011390701)

Storks vary in their tendency towards migration. Temperate species like the white stork, black stork and Oriental stork undertake long annual migrations in the winter. The routes taken by these species have developed to avoid long distance travel across water, and from Europe this usually means flying across the Straits of Gibraltar or east across the Bosphorus and through Israel and the Sinai. Studies of young birds denied the chance to travel with others of their species have shown that these routes are at least partially learnt, rather than being innate as they are in

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

migrants. Migrating black storks are split between those that make stopovers on the migration between Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa, and those that don't. The Abdim's stork is another migrant, albeit one that migrates within the tropics. It breeds in northern Africa, from Senegal to the Red Sea, during the wet season, and then migrates to Southern Africa. Many species that aren't regular migrants will still make smaller movements if circumstances require it; others may migrate over part of their range. This can also include regular commutes from nesting sites to feeding areas. Wood storks have been observed feeding from their breeding colony.

Behaviour

Feeding and diet

Storks are carnivorous predators, taking a range of reptiles, small mammals, insects, fish, amphibians and other small invertebrates. Any plant material consumed is usually by accident. ''Mycteria'' storks are specialists in feeding on aquatic vertebrates, particularly when prey is concentrated by lowering water levels or flooding into shallows. On marine mudflats and mangrove swamps in Sumatra, milky storks feed on mudskippers, probing the burrow with the bill and even the whole head into the mud. The characteristic feeding method involves standing or walking in shallow water and holding the bill submerged in the water. When contact is made with prey the bill reflexively snaps shut in 25 milliseconds, one of the fastest reactions known in any vertebrate. The reaction is able to distinguish between prey items and inanimate objects like branches, although the exact mechanism is unknown. Openbills are specialists in freshwater molluscs, particularly apple snails. They feed in small groups, and sometimes African openbills ride on the backs of hippos while foraging. Having caught a snail it will return to land or at least to the shallows to eat it. The fine tip of the bill of the openbills is used to open the snail, and the saliva has a narcotic effect, which causes the snail to relax and simplifies the process of extraction. The other genera of storks are more generalised. ''Ciconia'' storks are very generalised in their diets, although Abdim's stork is something of a specialist in feeding in large flocks on swarms of locusts and at wildfires, although other storks will opportunistically feed in this way if the opportunity arises. This is why white storks and Abdim's storks are known as "grasshopper birds". ''Ephippiorhynchus'' are carnivorous though have a very diverse diet when living on human modified habitats such as agricultural landscapes. The foraging method used by the generalists is to stalk or walk across grassland or shallow water, watching for prey.

Breeding

Storks range from being solitary breeders through loose breeding associations to fully

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

. The jabiru, ''Ephippiorhynchus'' storks and several species of ''Ciconia'' are entirely solitary when breeding. In contrast the ''Mycteria'' storks, Abdim's stork, openbills and ''Leptoptilos'' storks all breed in colonies which can range from a couple of pairs to thousands. Many of these species breed in colonies with other waterbirds, which can include other species of storks, herons and egrets, pelicans, cormorants and ibises. White storks, Oriental storks and Maguari storks are all loosely colonial, and may breed in nests that are within visual range of others of the same species, but have little to do with one another. They also may nest solitarily, and the reasons why they choose to nest together or apart are not understood.

Systematics

A DNA study found that the families

Ardeidae The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychu ...

, Balaenicipitidae, Scopidae and the

Threskiornithidae The family Threskiornithidae includes 36 species of large wading birds. The family has been traditionally classified into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills; however recent genetic studies have cast doubt on this arrangement, and ha ...

belong to the

Pelecaniformes The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such n ...

. This would make Ciconiidae the only group. Storks were distinct and possibly widespread by the Oligocene. Like most families of aquatic birds, storks seem to have arisen in the

Palaeogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

, maybe 40–50

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago) ...

(mya). For the fossil record of living genera, documented since the Middle Miocene (about 15 mya) at least in some cases, see the genus articles. 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 the island of Réunion was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the

Mascarene Islands The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their ...

Extant storks

Fossil storks

*Genus '' Palaeoephippiorhynchus'' (

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

: Early Oligocene of Fayyum, Egypt) *Genus ''Grallavis'' (

: Early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France, and Djebel Zelten, Libya) – may be same as ''Prociconia'' *Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (Ituzaingó Late Miocene of Paraná, Argentina) Tarsometatarsus fragments somewhat similar to ''Mycteria''Noriega, Jorge Ignacio & Cladera, Gerardo (2005). ''First Record of Leptoptilini (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae) in the Neogene of South America''. Abstracts of Sixth International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution: 47
PDF fulltext
*Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (Puerto Madryn Late Miocene of Punta Buenos Aires, Argentina)Specimen MEF 1363: Incomplete skeleton of a large stork somewhat similar to ''Jabiru'' but apparently more

plesiomorph In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, a ...

ic *Genus ''Prociconia'' (

: Late Pleistocene of Brazil) – may belong to modern genus ''Jabiru'' or ''Ciconia'' *Genus ''Pelargosteon'' (

: Early Pleistocene of Romania) *Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. – formerly ''Aquilavus/Cygnus bilinicus'' (

: Early Miocene of Břešťany, Czech Republic) *cf. ''Leptoptilos'' gen. et sp. indet. – formerly ''L. siwalicensis'' (

: Late Miocene? – Late Pliocene of Siwalik, India)Specimens BMNH 39741 (holotype, left proximal tarsometatarsus) and BMNH 39734 (right distal

tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These s ...

). Similar to ''Ephippiorhynchus'' and ''Leptotilos'', may be from a small female of ''Leptotilos falconeri'', from ''L. dubius'', or from another species: *Ciconiidae gen. et sp. indet. (

: Late Pleistocene of San Josecito Cavern, Mexico) Distal

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

of a mid-sized ''Ciconia'' or smallish ''Mycteria'': The fossil genera ''Eociconia'' (Middle Eocene of China) and ''Ciconiopsis'' (Deseado Early Oligocene of Patagonia, Argentina) are often tentatively placed with this family. A "ciconiiform" fossil fragment from the Touro Passo Formation found at Arroio Touro Passo ( Rio Grande do Sul,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) might be of the living

''M. americana''; it is at most of Late Pleistocene age, a few 10,000s of years.Schmaltz Hsou, Annie (2007). ''O estado atual do registro fóssil de répteis e aves no Pleistoceno do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil'' The current state of the fossil record of Pleistocene reptiles and birds of Rio Grande do Sul" Talk held on 2007-JUN-20 at ''Quaternário do RS: integrando conhecimento'', Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
PDF abstract

Etymology

The Modern English word can be traced back to

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

''*sturkaz''. Nearly every Germanic language has a descendant of this proto-language word to indicate the (

) stork. Related names also occur in Latvian, ''stārķis'', and some

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

, e.g. ''štorklja'' in Slovenian and “щъркел” htŭrkelin Bulgarian, originating as Germanic

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s. According to the ''New

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary The ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (''SOED'') is an English language dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. The SOED is a two-volume abridgement of the twenty-volume ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''). Print editions ...

'', the Germanic root is probably related to the modern English "stark", in reference to the stiff or rigid posture of a European species, the

white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to e ...

. A non-Germanic word linked to it may be

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''torgos'' ("vulture"). In some

West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into ...

cognate words of a different etymology exist, e.g. '' ooievaar'' in Dutch. They originate from ''*uda-faro'', ''uda'' being related to ''water'' meaning something like ''swamp'' or ''moist area'' and ''faro'' being related to ''fare''; so ''*uda-faro'' is something like ''he who walks in the swamp''. In later times this name got reanalysed as ''*ōdaboro'', ''ōda'' "fortune, wealth" + ''boro'' "bearer" meaning ''he who brings wealth'' adding to the myth of storks as maintainers of welfare and bringers of children. Dvorac Bisag - roda

In Estonian, "stork" is ''toonekurg'', which is derived from ''toonela'' (

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

Estonian folklore The earliest mentioning of Estonian singing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus' ''Gesta Danorum'' (c. 1179). Saxo spoke of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for a battle. Henry of Livonia at the beginning of the 13th century describe ...

) + ''kurg'' ( crane). At the times storks were named, the now-rare

was probably the more common species.

In fiction

Storks have many stories surrounding them, like in Aesop's (6th century BCE) fables

The Farmer and the Stork The Farmer and the Stork is one of Aesop's fables which appears in Greek in the collections of both Babrius and Aphthonius and has differed little in the telling over the centuries. The story relates how a farmer plants traps in his field to catc ...

and The Fox and the Stork. The first fable begins with a farmer plowing his fields, sowing his seeds and spreading his nets. These nets catch several cranes who hopped behind him picking up the seed. Along with the cranes tangled in his net, the farmer discovered a stork with a broken leg. The stork begged the farmer to spare his life, arguing that he was not a crane, but a stork. He pointed to his feathers and told the farmer that they didn't resemble a crane's feathers in the least. The farmer laughed at the stork and said, "I have taken you with these robbers, the cranes, and you must die in their company." A common euphemism is that storks deliver babies to their mothers instead of mothers giving birth. Storks play a prominent role in Hans Christian Andersen's lengthy fairy tale, "The Marsh King's Daughter."