RJ sez, "Storks will choose the position for their nest for a variety of reasons and if that happens to be atop a man-made object, then so be it. Some are welcomed and encouraged, others not so. Yet their ability to build huge nests in precarious positions never fails to surprise. Here are some examples that may just take your breath away."
Although many Europeans encourage storks to nest on the roof of their home – it is supposed to increase the fecundity of the householders – many would gasp at the inherent danger that lies in building one's home on top of a deadly current of electricity. In Denmark, however, the stork is not a welcome guest and so this would be considered appropriate alternative housing. The Danish believe that if a stork builds a nest on top of your house then someone who lives there will die before the year ends. These parent storks, however, will not be on the nest for great periods of time. This stork in Hungary is flying back to the nest to feed its offspring. The visit will need to be fairly quick though – stork chicks can eat anything up to sixty percent of their body weight each day. That is quite a few fish and frogs.
Avian Architecture: The Precarious Nests of the Stork
(Thanks, RJ!)
(Image: Stork's nest II, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image from Tillwe's Flickr stream)
