White Stork

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White Stork

White StorkOriginal.png

シュバシコウ
Character Data
Romaji Shubashikou
Debut Kemono Friends Pavilion
Animal Data
Scientific Name Ciconia ciconia
Distribution Africa, Europe, Southwestern Asia
Diet Carnivore
Avg. Lifespan 22 Years
Read More White stork
Conservation Status iucn3.1 LC.svg.png
White Stork Pavilion

White Stork is a type of bird Friend.

Appearance

White Stork has long white hair that goes to her hips and large headwings that are partially bent inward. She wears a black and blue hairclip on the right side, the same blue as her eyes, to represent the shape of a real stork's eyes. The hairclip is positioned above long and straight red side-bangs, which represent her beak. She wears a white suit jacket with white buttons over a black shirt and a white tied neck scarf. Her long tail feathers are widely spaced like primary feathers and are knee-length. White Stork also wears a short black pleated skirt with white pantyhose that become red at about mid-thigh and downward. She wears loafer-style shoes in dark red and carries a white tote bag with the Kemono Friends logo.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media
Media Role
2018Kemono Friends Pavilion Observable character

In Real Life

White stork, Huelva, Spain. Photo by Charles J Sharp, 2022.

The White Stork is a large migrating bird native to Europe and the middle east in the summer and subsaharan Africa and India in the winter. They're around one meter tall and have a wingspan of two meters. Their plumage is mostly white except for the black wings. Their beak and legs are red. Originally they nested in tree and on rocks but with increased human presence they usually build them on chimneys, towers, rooftops or nest platforms specifically made for conservation purposes. Their diet consists of insects, worms, small mammals like mice, voles and moles, frogs, reptiles, fish, molluscs and young birds.

White Storks often form small nesting colonies. They're seen as a sign of good luck so they will not be removed. The nests will be reused year after year and each time more nesting material is added so a large nest is seen as successful. If a stork fails to raise their young the nest will be abandoned next year. They're seasonally monogamous but do not mate for life. They usually lay four eggs which are incubated as soon as the first is laid so the offspring hatches at different times instead of simultaneously. Though this usually means a competitive advantage for the oldest chick, they do not attack each other and they're fed directly by their parents so the youngest will not starve to death because of the oldest taking all its food away. In times of food shortages, the parents may kill the weakest to assure the survival of at least one chick.

White Storks are one of the most studied migrating birds. Originally, people believed they changed form and became mice or other birds or simply hibernated. Only when injured individuals with African arrows stuck in them were found back in Europe and juveniles were ringed to track their movements did people understand their migratory nature. One of these rare so-called Pfeilstörche was found in modern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 1822, stuffed and is now on display in the University of Rostock. The birds begin heading southwards in August and September. They congregate in large flocks and head back to Europe in March. They avoid the Mediterranean Sea by either going west over Iberia and the Strait of Gibraltar or eastward via the Bosporus.

White Storks are seen as a positive sign in most cultures they came into contact with. Their large size, preying on vermin and their nests close to humans or even on rooftops made them ideal symbols of protection. The hebrew word for white stork means "merciful" or "kind". Both ancient Greece and Rome saw them as devoted parents and many myths formed surrounding them. Islam reveres them as the birds migrate via their holy site Mecca annually. Their nests were said to protect against fires in Germany and they appear to be especially beloved in west and east Slavic cultures where they're said to bring harmony to families on whose property they nest. They're the national birds of Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. The common belief that storks deliver babies may derive from their large size and high flight altitude, being seen as a connection between earth and the heavens, where they take unborn souls back in the spring.

Bird Friends
Auks
Atlantic PuffinGreat AukTufted Puffin
Birds-of-Paradise
Greater Bird-Of-ParadiseGreater LophorinaWestern Parotia
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Eagles Bald EagleGolden EagleHarpy EagleMartial Eagle
Owls Barn OwlEurasian Eagle-OwlForest OwletKyushu OwlNorthern White-Faced OwlSpectacled Owl
Columbids
DodoPassenger PigeonRock Dove
Gruiformes
Grey Crowned CraneOkinawa RailRed-Crowned CraneWhite-Naped Crane
Gulls
Black-Tailed GullCommon GullRoss's Gull
Pelecaniformes Great White PelicanPink-Backed PelicanShoebill
Ibises Black-Headed IbisCrested IbisScarlet Ibis
Penguins
Adélie PenguinAfrican PenguinChinstrap PenguinEmperor PenguinGentoo PenguinHumboldt PenguinKing PenguinNew Zealand Giant PenguinRoyal PenguinSouthern Rockhopper Penguin
Phasianids
ChickenChukar PartridgeGreen PheasantIndian PeafowlRed JunglefowlRock PtarmiganWhite Peafowl
Piciformes
Acorn WoodpeckerCampo FlickerGreater Honeyguide
Ratites
Common OstrichEmuGreater RheaNorth Island Giant MoaSouthern Brown KiwiSouthern Cassowary
Storks
Oriental StorkSaddle-Billed StorkWhite Stork
Waterfowl
Black SwanEastern Spot-Billed DuckEgyptian GooseTundra Swan
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