Stork

Storks are a family of birds (Ciconiidae). They usually live near shallow bodies of water where they wade through the water, and catch small animals, like frogs, crabs, or small fish. Many species of stork are migratory, they spend the summer and the winter in different places. There are 19 different species of stork, in six genera. The marabou stork is the largest species of stork. The Abdim's stork is the smallest species of stork

Probably the best known stork is the white stork. It is known to build large nests in high places. Stork nests are often very large. They may be used for many years. Beforehand, people believed storks were monogamous, that they only had one partner in life. More recent research has shown  that they may change partners. They are attached to a nest almost as much as to a partner.

The marabou stork, which lives in Africa, has a wingspan of up to 320 cm. This makes it the largest bird still alive, together with the Andean condor.

Species
There are nineteen species of stork. They include:
 Abdim's stork
 African openbill
 Asian openbill
 Asian woollyneck
 Black stork
 Black-backed stork
 Greater adjutant
 Jabiru
 Lesser adjutant
 Maguari stork
 Marabou stork
 Milky stork
 Oriental stork
 Painted stork
 Saddle-billed stork
 Storm's stork
 White stork
 Wood stork
 Yellow-billed stork

 In fiction 
The stork has many legends (stories) about it, as in the Ancient Greek storyteller's Aesop's (6th century BC) The Farmer and the Stork and The Fox and the Stork. The first fable (short story) begins with a farmer plowing his fields, planting his seeds and spreading his nets. These nets caught a few cranes who hopped behind him eating the seed. Along with the cranes in his net the farmer discovered a stork with a broken leg. The stork begged the farmer to spare his life, saying 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 at all. The farmer laughed at the stork and said, “I have taken you with these robbers (thieves), the cranes, and you must die in their company.” Another common legend is that storks deliver babies  instead of the mothers giving birth.

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