Newsademic British English edition 260

4th February 2016 
Newsademic.com
™
 - British English edition 
page 
6
Normally, the storks fly south at 
the end o f summer. They spend 
the northern hemisphere’s winter 
months south o f the Sahara Desert. 
Some fly all the way to the southern 
part o f the African continent. Storks 
in Uzbekistan fly south to India.
W hen flying south, the birds 
make use o f air currents high in 
the sky. These are called air ther­
mals. This saves energy, as the birds 
do not have to flap their wings so 
much. The storks fly over Spain and 
Israel. They do not cross the M edi­
terranean Sea. This is because there 
are no air thermals above the M edi­
terranean. In autumn, large flocks of 
storks can be seen flying over Spain 
at the western end o f the Mediter­
ranean and above Israel in the east.
European white storks are mo­
nogamous. This means that they 
always mate with the same male 
or female. The birds return to their 
own nests. The male usually arrives 
a few days before the female. Dur­
ing this time, the male rebuilds or 
repairs the nest.
White storks on nesting platform in Poland (M Betley)
The researchers attached track­
ing devices to white storks in Tu­
nisia, 
Spain, Germany, Poland, 
Greece, Russia, Armenia, and Uz­
bekistan. The birds in Uzbekistan 
did not migrate. The researchers 
believe that these storks feed in lo­
cal fish farms. As this food is avail­
able all year, the birds no longer
fly to India. The storks from Po­
land, Greece and Russia all flew to 
southern Africa. However, the oth­
ers did not cross the Sahara Desert. 
They survived the winter months 
by finding food in rubbish dumps 
in places like Morocco.