White stork
Ciconia ciconia
A large white bird with black flight feathers and a red bill and legs. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; nesting is limited to southern highland settlements.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Open-country prey
Status in Georgia
Breeding migrant
Size
100–115 cm
Habitat
Settlement and wetland
Family
Ciconiidae
Conservation
VU / LC
Human interaction: It is not a threat to people and is not venomous. In Georgia it nests in villages, so close contact with people is normal. The bill is strong — do not approach, feed, or pick up nestlings. Moving a nest or taking it off a line is specialist work, not a casual intervention.
Overview
What is White stork
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large white bird with black flight feathers, confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it BB; M: a breeder that is absent in the non-breeding season, and also a bird of passage. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographs. The checklist lists the subspecies as C. c. ciconia and uses the English name Western White Stork. The breeding range in Georgia is narrow: Samtskhe–Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli in the 2024 census. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Resolution No. 190) still lists it as ლაკლაკი, category VU, criterion D1.
Last updated
Gallery
White stork in photos
Photo: Lidine Mia
Canal de la Bruche ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Huelva ·
Photo: Jakub Hałun
Rust ·
Photo: Bartosz Czarnecki
Czarniż ·
Photo: Gzen92
Hunawihr ·
Identification
How to identify White stork
A large white bird with black wing tips, a long red bill and red legs. In Georgia it is a breeding migrant on the 2024 checklist, nesting in two southern regions. The usual confusion is black stork and great white egret.
- 01
Length about 100–115 cm at species level; wingspan is often given around 155–215 cm. Mass is often about 2.3–4.5 kg. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page. The body and neck are white; the flight feathers are black and obvious in the air. Adults have a red bill and red legs. Skin around the eye is dark. Females are on average a little smaller than males; sex is not reliably told by size in the field.
- 02
Juveniles have a dark or brownish-black bill, not clean red; the legs are also darker. That is the most useful age mark at close range. Flight silhouette: long outstretched neck, long legs trailing, broad wings with a black trailing edge. A heron tucks the neck in flight.
- 03
Black stork (Ciconia nigra) is also a breeding migrant on the 2024 checklist (BB; M); the checklist codes it NT nationally, while the 2014 Red List codes it VU under the Georgian name ყარყატი. The back, neck and wings are dark, the belly white; it nests in forest and river valleys, not on village roofs. Great white egret (Ardea alba) is all white, without black flight feathers, with a yellow bill and an S-shaped neck. Great white and Dalmatian pelicans are much larger, with a pouched bill. Oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana) is not on the 2024 checklist. This atlas does not yet have a separate black stork page.
- 04
Georgian names clash. The 2014 list calls C. ciconia ლაკლაკი and C. nigra ყარყატი. This page uses თეთრი ყარყატი as the main name because it states the colour; ლაკლაკი is the official alternative. Bare „ყარყატი“ in legal text means the black species. It is not a threat to people. A white black-winged bird with a red bill on a village pole is this species.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
In Georgia look for it in the breeding season in settlements and nearby open wet ground, not in winter. The 2024 census (Budagashvili, Shoshitashvili & Uguzashvili) restricts breeding to Samtskhe–Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli: mountain grasslands, subalpine lakes and wetlands close to villages. Every counted nest was inside a settlement — rooftops, pylons or similar supports, not remote forest. Fifty-nine settlements were surveyed; 43 had breeding pairs. Those two administrative regions are coloured on the atlas map from that paper. Other regions are not coloured here: birds on passage may appear more widely, but this page has no compiled list of passage localities. The full settlement table is in the paper’s supplement and is not copied here. A separate national elevation band in metres is not published on this page. Breeding in the Colchis lowlands or on the northern Greater Caucasus slope is not supported by these sources.
Diet
There is no separate measured Georgian diet study on this page. At species level it forages in open, often wet ground: large invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, fish, and other prey it can catch. It probes soil or the water’s edge with the bill. That is the general trophic niche, not a weighed Georgian menu.
Behavior
It is active by day. It often soars in pairs or groups with the neck outstretched, not pulled into an S like a heron. At the nest the main sound is bill-clattering, not a song. No Georgian recording is on this page. The clip is xeno-canto XC1103936 (Petter Westberg, Fulltofta, Hörby, Skåne, Sweden). It builds its own nest: a large stick pile on a village support, often with several pairs in one settlement. In the 2024 census most of the 202 occupied nests held two or three nestlings; four nestlings were uncommon. Clutch size, incubation length and fledging age have not been measured separately for Georgia on this page. Species-level handbooks often give about three eggs, about a month of incubation and about two months to fledge — that is not a Georgian series. The 2024 checklist treats the species as a breeder and a migrant in Georgia, not as a winter visitor. Wintering sites of the local population are not mapped by satellite tracking on this page. At species level, western Palearctic birds mainly winter in Africa; that is not a confirmed route for Georgian birds. Exact arrival and departure dates for Georgia are not tabulated here.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Ciconia ciconia as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2025 assessment). The global range and population are large. In Georgia two assessments disagree and both should be read. The 2014 Red List (Resolution No. 190) still lists the species as ლაკლაკი, VU, criterion D1 (small population) — that is the legal list among the sources used here. The 2024 ornithological checklist assigns global and national category LC. The 2024 census recorded 202 occupied nests, compared with 105 in 2018–2020; a 40% increase in the 23 settlements counted in both periods was not statistically significant. Older figures are 74 occupied nests in 1984, about 60 pairs in 1994–1995, and 104 in 2013–2014. The census paper flags future wind-energy development in Samtskhe–Javakheti as a risk to large soaring birds. Collision and electrocution on power lines are well known at species level; a separate Georgian casualty total is not given here. The EU Birds Directive does not apply in Georgia. Do not disturb wild birds or nests.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed breeding bird and migrant (BB; M). It is absent in the non-breeding season.
When breeding — in settlements of Samtskhe–Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, near open wet ground. The 2024 census counted 202 occupied nests in 43 settlements. Other regions are not coloured on this page. Wider appearance on passage is possible, but there is no passage map here.
Large white body, black flight feathers, long red bill and legs. The neck is stretched out in flight. A black stork has a dark back. A great white egret lacks black wing tips and tucks the neck in flight.
About 100–115 cm long at species level, with a wingspan often given around 155–215 cm. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
Prey it can catch in open, often wet ground: invertebrates, amphibians, and small vertebrates. Diet has not been studied separately in Georgia on this page.
As a breeding migrant: present in the breeding season and on passage, absent in winter, according to the 2024 checklist. Exact arrival and departure dates for Georgia are not tabulated on this page.
Yes. BB on the 2024 checklist means it is a confirmed breeder. The 2024 census found breeding only in Samtskhe–Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, on supports in settlements.
It is harmless. It is globally Least Concern. The 2014 Red List lists it as VU (ლაკლაკი). The 2024 checklist codes it LC nationally. Do not disturb wild birds or nests.
- Budagashvili, Shoshitashvili & Uguzashvili 2024 — White Storks in Georgia (Caucasiana 3)
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- SABUKO — Bird checklist
- BirdLife DataZone — White Stork
- IUCN Red List — Ciconia ciconia
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- Abuladze & Eligulashvili 1986 — White Stork in Georgia
- Abuladze et al. 2014 — White Stork census in Georgia 2013–2014
- Shoshitashvili 2020 — Ecology and Conservation of Storks in Georgia (MSc, Ilia State University)
- Wikimedia Commons — standing, Huelva (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Canal de la Bruche (Lidine Mia, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — in flight, Rust (Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — nest, Czarniż (Bartosz Czarnecki, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — juvenile, Hunawihr (Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- xeno-canto XC1103936 — Ciconia ciconia (Petter Westberg, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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