looduskalender.ee

February 2

 

 This white stork will certainly survive the winter (Roiu 02.02.2012)

 

Every now and then I am asked how often white storks stay in Estonia during winter and  whether they will be able to keep alive in hard frost? It is easy to answer – if it is a bird like the one seen today in Roiu in Tartumaa, made of polymer or wood, it is sure to survive. More seriously, white storks leave Estonia in early October at the latest. But every year it happens that a few injured or sick birds are left behind and they can be seen until severe cold arrives. If the white stork finds enough food it can manage the cold quite well, but injured and sick birds generally easily fall prey to predators. Unfortunately it has also happened in Estonia that people have spoilt white storks, that is, domesticated them. For instance some time ago a white stork wintered for several years in Virumaa. In winter the bird kept company with the mallards on the river bank and thanks to extra food it survived the winters nicely. At first it was not quite clear why a bird in good health behaved thus, why didn’t it fly to the south? Further investigation revealed that the village people did not only feed the stork in winter but also in summer. Stories were told of how fish was brought all the time and put below the nest so that the adults could feed their young more easily. It seems that the stork was simply domesticated by this. Suddenly at some time it did not bother to go south any more, food was after all always there at beak’s reach. Finally the feeding of the stork became so costly that help was sought from outside. Unfortunately people did not realise that with their own too eager actions they had unwittingly domesticated a bird that then in the worst case would have to be fed and supported for some twenty years.

On the website of the Estonian Ornithological Society there are many guides for feeding birds that state more precisely whether and when and how birds should be fed. Before bringing bread to ducks one should seriously consider if this does not instead harm the birds?

 

Texts in the pages linked below are in Estonian

Talvised aialinnud ja nende toitmine  / Feeding winter garden birds     

Veelinnud ei vaja lisatoitu / Waterfowl don't need extra feeding

Üht-teist väikeste lindude talvisest lisatoitmisest   /  Some points about extra winter food for small birds