What are white storks? 

White storks are distinctive birds, standing over 3 feet tall with long, orange-red beaks and legs, black eyes and black wingtips. They can live for as many as 40 years, though their average life expectancy is between 20 and 35 years, and eat an omnivorous diet which includes small mammals, birds, amphibians and large insects.  

White storks play a key role in wetland ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity and connecting different sites as they fly between, nesting in large, stand-alone trees. Up until the 15th century, white storks would have been seen across our county, perhaps favouring the wetlands around the River Trent but travelling right up our river systems and nesting near communities across Derbyshire and the UK. 

Are white storks missing? 

Unfortunately, a range of factors, including the loss of wetland and grassland habitats through industrialisation and widespread hunting, brought an end to breeding stork populations in the UK, with the last breeding pair recorded in 1416 on the roof of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

White storks can fly miles to find suitable habitats, but almost always return to where they hatched. This is why, while we have not had breeding Storks in the Midlands for over 600 years, you may still see them fly over when visiting from Europe, Africa, or, since 2020, from the successfully reintroduced population in Sussex. 

What are we missing without them? 

White storks are a native species and played a key role in balanced ecosystems of the past. While we have a good understanding of their role regulating small animal populations, or building and abandoning nests to support other birds, we can never fully understand the symbiotic relationships that held up this balanced ecosystem, and despite the best efforts of conservationists, we are suffering low biodiversity and poor carbon capture of broken wetland ecosystems. Storks are a key indicator of healthy wetland ecosystems and could help not just to reverse these environmental issues but also build local resilience against the climate crisis. 

Alongside this, they are endearing birds, great at inspiring an enthusiasm for nature. An example of this is in one of Aesop’s fables ‘The Fox and the Stork’, whereby the fox offers the stork a meal it cannot eat because it is on a shallow plate. The stork returns the favour by offering a meal the fox cannot eat as it is at the bottom of a tall, narrow jar — the moral being that one shouldn’t be surprised for being treated in the same manner as one treats others. More famously in Europe, storks are said to deliver babies. This link comes from the fact that white storks migrate back to Europe in the spring — spring being the season of new life and regeneration. 

What would it take to bring white stork back to the Midlands? 

We do not know if the Midlands is ready to bring back a breeding stork population, but we would like to find out. To investigate our readiness for white stork recovery, we must first tackle the factors which led to the loss of them in the first place, gauging whether we have enough of the right habitat and whether we have the support of local people to protect them from persecution. This research and consultation work will need planning, funding, and the support of our members and followers.  

In 2025, with the widespread Southern success of stork reintroduction, and with the birth of a stork chick just over the border in Staffordshire, we feel we have an unprecedented opportunity for stork recovery in the Midlands. We have begun talking to stakeholders and developing a plan to work together, and we hope to bring in funding for an ecological appraisal of habitats, perhaps some habitat restoration, but most importantly, a listening exercise to hear from and work with landowners and communities across the Midlands.  

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