The smallest Stork is the African Openbill Stork which stands 55 to 60 cms tall, several species including the Saddlebill Stork, the Jabiru Stork and the Greater Adjutant Stork can all reach 150 cms in height. Most species are found in Tropical Africa and Asia, though two species occur in Europe and three in Central and South America. Some storks are migratory. The Black Stork migrates from temperate Eurasia to tropical Afro-Asia. Other migratory storks include the White Stork and Oriental White Stork.
Storks have a pantropical to warm temperate distribution.
As a family they have 12 primaries, though in some species the 12 th is secondarily reduced or absent altogether. They have the delightful habit of defecating on their legs in order to cool them down, evaporative cooling at its smelliest. Like their relatives the Ibises and Spoonbills most storks are birds of wetlands, because so much of this habitat has been destroyed world-wide a number of species are endangered and most have declining populations. In the IUCN lists the Greater Adjutant Stork is listed as endangered while Storm's Stork, Lesser Adjutant Stork, Milky Stork, Oriental White stork and Black Stork are all listed as vulnerable. In Europe, White Storks were once considered to symbolically be responsible for the arrival of babies, and though this idea is not taken seriously the imagery has caught on.