White storks could soon soaring over the skies of London, thanks to a new rewilding project which hopes to reintroduce this iconic bird to the nation’s capital.
Famed for delivering babies in tightly knotted hankies, the white stork is a symbol of hope, joy and new life. Standing over a metre tall, with a wingspan twice as large, the big-beaked beauties used to breed in the UK, until hunting and habitat loss drove them to extinction over 600 years ago.
Now Citizen Zoo, a conservation charity that specialises in community-led urban rewilding, is testing the water to see if London could, once again, become a “white stork-friendly city”.
Although storks prefer wetlands, pastures and farmlands, they can and do thrive near human towns and cities, including Strasbourg and Madrid.
In 2016, the birds returned to the UK as part of The White Stork Project of Sussex. Birds from Poland formed the nucleus of a new colony, which has since gone on to breed. Last year, 53 white storks fledged from the wild at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
European white storks overwinter in Africa, then return home to breed in spring. Now the hope is that the UK birds will do the same, and perhaps even bring new wild storks back with them.
White storks in London
In the four decades before the White Stork Project began, there were just 27 records of white storks across Greater London. In the last ten years, there have been more than 450 sightings, which include birds from Sussex exploring the area.
Buoyed by this success, Citizen Zoo have launched a project to gauge what the public thinks about the potential return of white storks to London, and to map out possible habitat.
Researchers working for the project will reach out to the Mayor of London and the 33 local authorities to assess their receptiveness, as well as engaging with local communities in the form of physical and virtual events. They are also collaborating with London’s Ecological Records Centre to examine habitat data and identify areas capable of supporting white stork populations.
“The London White Stork project aspires for a wilder London, where people can interact and engage with nature on a daily basis,” the White Storks London working group says. “We believe that white storks have the potential to thrive in London, and could become a symbol for nature recovery within the capital.”
Top image: white stork. Credit: Getty
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