Elegant and dramatic in equal measure, the white stork’s return to the UK brings hope for renewal and reconnection further afield

‘If you take care of birds, you take care of most of the environment problems in the world’

THOMAS LOVEJOY

Teddy bears, prams, giraffes, elephants – they’re just a few of the myriad motifs to be found on new-baby cards. Another is the image of a graceful stork carefully transporting a cloth bundle in its bill, determined to deliver its precious contents – a newborn son or daughter – safely to its parents.

A theme that’s also popular in art, literature, film and cartoons, it’s believed to have emerged in ancient Greece, where cranes, which share many of the stork ’s features, were linked to stealing babies. This assocation stems from the myth that Hera, the goddess of childbirth, turned a love rival she believed was having an affair with her husband, into a crane. In despair that she was going to lose her newborn baby, the newly transformed rival wrapped the infant in a blanket, picked it up in her bill and flew away. Over the years, the crane became a stork and variations on the story have been used to explain the arrival of a newborn to young children.

Whatever the reason for its association with birth, the stork has a reputation in many countries as a symbol of renewal, positivity and good fortune. In Native American traditions, it’s deeply connected to the spiritual realm, while in Ukraine, where it’s the country’s national bird, it represents peace, freedom, protection, family and spring. It does, of course, have the advantage of being one of nature’s most striking and easily recognisable creatures, with its white-and-black plumage, scarlet dagger bill and slender cherry-red legs, and it’s lived alongside humans for hundreds of years, often nesting atop man-made structures such as church spires and chimneys. And, in another nod to that Greek myth, the sight of a stork landing on your roof is, for some, a sure sign there’ll soon be an addition to the family.