They return to the same place every year. Not just to the same country or region – they come back to the very same nest, on the same utility pole, beside the same house. They travel 10,000 kilometers across the Sahara, Egypt, and Turkey to land exactly where they departed the previous August. Of the world’s 280,000 breeding pairs of white storks, around 45,000 nest in Poland.
Most of the World’s White Storks Are Born in Poland
A dozen or so kilometers from Tykocin, in the Podlaskie region, lies the village of Pentowo. It officially holds the title of the European Stork Village. During the breeding season, dozens of nests can be seen on rooftops, utility poles, and specially built platforms. There are more nests than residential buildings.
Pentowo is not an exception. In Warmia, Masuria, Podlasie, and the Lublin region, white storks are part of the landscape in a way that residents of large cities can hardly imagine. In some counties, there is one nest for every dozen or so farms. In others, a stork can literally be seen perched on every third utility pole.
The highest concentrations of white storks coincide with the valleys of major and medium-sized rivers – the Noteć and Warta river valleys in Greater Poland, the Barycz Valley in Lower Silesia, and the Biebrza and Narew river valleys in Podlasie. Wherever meadows, pastures, and wetlands have been preserved, storks have abundant feeding grounds.
We Used to Be Number One. Not Anymore
For decades, Poland was the undisputed leader in Europe’s white stork population. A census conducted at the beginning of the 21st century recorded 52,000 breeding pairs in the country. Then the numbers began to decline. Intensive farming, the conversion of meadows into arable land, wetland drainage, and large-scale corn and rapeseed cultivation deprived storks of their feeding habitats. The population fell by several thousand pairs. Spain has since taken over the top position, with around 48,000 breeding pairs.
The latest global census, carried out in 2024 by scientists and volunteers, found that Poland is now home to approximately 45,000 breeding pairs. The decline has stopped, and 2024 turned out to be an exceptionally good year. Dr. Marcin Tobółka of the Poznań University of Life Sciences, the national coordinator of the census, described it simply as “a stork boom.”
Two Paths to Survival
Ornithologists have noticed an interesting trend. Poland’s white storks have split into two groups. One continues to rely on traditional landscapes – meadows, pastures, and river valleys. Wherever farming remains much as it was a century ago, stork numbers are increasing. Over the past decade, the population has grown by 30 percent in Lubusz Voivodeship and by 20 percent in Greater Poland Voivodeship. The other group has adapted by searching for food at landfill sites.
Around Gorzów, as well as in Silesia and Greater Poland, white storks are increasingly feeding on organic waste at landfills. It may not be the idyllic countryside scene people associate with storks, but the birds do not seem to mind. The food is there, and that is what matters.
In regions where meadows and wetlands have disappeared, such as Opole and Lower Silesia, white stork numbers have been declining for years.
By the End of August, They Will All Be Gone
July is the last full month when white storks remain in Poland. By the end of the month, young birds begin practicing longer flights. During the first half of August, large gatherings known as sejmiki form in fields and meadows as the birds prepare for migration.
Most leave Poland during the second half of August. According to Polish folk tradition, the last adult storks depart on St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24.
Ahead of them lies a journey of 10,000 kilometers. Polish white storks fly south through Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, bypassing the Mediterranean Sea via the Bosporus Strait before continuing to Africa. The migration takes two to three months. In spring, they return – to the very same nest, on the very same utility pole, beside the very same house.