Storks

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White Stork |- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background: pink;" | Scientific classification |- style="text-align:center;" |

|- valign=top |Kingdom:||Animalia |- valign=top |Phylum:||Chordata |- valign=top |Class:||Aves |- valign=top |Order:||Ciconiiformes |- valign=top |Family:||Ciconiidae |} |- style="text-align:center; background:pink;" !Genera |- | Mycteria
Anastomus
Ciconia
Ephippiorhynchus
Jabiru
Leptoptilos
|} The storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills. They occur in most of the warmer regions of the world. They tend to live in drier habitats than their relatives the herons, spoonbills and Ibises, and lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Many species are migratory. Storks eat frogs, fish and small birds or mammals.

The storks are members of the order Ciconiiformes, along with several other groups of wading birds as shown below:

• Order Ciconiiformes
  • Ardeidae herons and bitterns
  • Cochlearidae: Boatbill
  • Balaenicipitidae Shoebill
  • Scopidae Hammerkop
  • Ciconiidae: storks
  • Threskiornithidae ibises and spoonbills
  • Phoenicopteridae flamingos

The species are:

Genus Mycteria

• Milky Stork , Mycteria cinerea
• Yellow-billed Stork , Mycteria ibis
• Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala
• Wood Stork, Mycteria americana

Genus Anastomas

• Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans
• African Openbill Stork , Anastomus lamelligerus

Genus Ciconia

• Abdim's Stork , Ciconia abdimii
• Woolly-necked Stork, Ciconia episcopus
• Storm's Stork , Ciconia stormi
• Maguari Stork , Ciconia maguari
• Oriental White Stork , Ciconia boyciana
• White Stork Ciconia ciconia
• Black Stork Ciconia nigra

Genus Ephippiorhynchus

• Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus
• Saddle-billed Stork , Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis

Genus Jabiru

• Jabiru Jabiru mycteria

Genus Leptoptilus

• Lesser Adjutant, Leptoptilos javanicus
• Greater Adjutant , Leptoptilos dubius
• Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus

The White Stork is the symbol of Den Haag, the national bird of Denmark, and unoffically the symbol of Poland, where about 25% of its population breed.

In popular Western culture, a common euphemism for childbirth is a stork delivering an infant by wrapping it in cloths and holding them in its beak.