Baby-delivering

In western folklore, parents have told their children for centuries that babies are delivered by a stork. Examples can be found in the film Dumbo and the short Lambert the Sheepish Lion. Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae.

Storks occur in many regions of the world and tend to live in drier habitats than the related herons, spoonbills and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Storks have no syrinx and are mute, giving no call; bill-clattering is an important mode of stork communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, small birds and small mammals.