These Bring Babies?
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
The stork might seem a strange choice to deliver babies in American folklore, as America’s only stork is the wood stork and it is not only carnivorous but also not exactly our most beautiful bird.
However, the tradition started not in America but in Europe, where the white stork often nested on farmhouses in spring when new life was emerging. The white stork has a feathered head and lacks the prehistoric look of our storks.
This adult was part of a group that was feeding in a freshwater marsh just before sunrise at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina. Younger birds have feathers on their necks and back of the head but are still unmistakably storks.