Tag Archives: Storks

Truth or Fiction? – Storks

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Special delivery! (Image credit John LundGetty Images)

As many of you have heard, it’s been said that Storks are known to deliver babies. I’ve seen many drawings over the years of such an event.

You may have seen photos like these:


Here is a link to an interesting article about this truth or myth: What’s Behind the Myth That Storks Deliver Babies?

After reading through that article, you are now sure that Storks delivering babies is a myth, right?

But hold on. Not so fast!! Dr. Jim (Dr. J.J.S. Johnson) sent me this RARE photo of a real delivery!

“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? (Job 39:13 NKJV)

Seriously, we love Storks here on the blog. And we know that the stork family were, like other birds, created by God. Take a look through some of our previous post abort Storks:

Birds of the Bible – Storks

Or use the Search mode to find other interesting articles that our writers have posted over the years.

Oh! And thanks, Dr. Jim, for sending me this amazing delivery. :)

Good News

Birds of the Bible – Deuteronomy 14:16-18 II (WYC)

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Storm's Stork (Ciconia stormi) ©©SanDiegoShooter

Storm’s Stork (Ciconia stormi) ©©SanDiegoShooter

“16 a falcon, and a swan, and a ciconia,
17 and a dipper, a porphyrio, and a rearmouse, a cormorant,
18 and a calidris, all in their kind; also a lapwing and a bat.” Deuteronomy 14:16-18 Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

Now here is an interesting interpretation of these 3 verses. We are going to look at these verse in a few blogs. Normally, these verses would read something similar to this:

Deuteronomy 14:16-18 KJV
(16)  The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
(17)  And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
(18)  And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

or like this:

Deuteronomy 14:16-18 NKJV
(16)  the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl,
(17)  the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl,
(18)  the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

Or maybe the New American Standard’s Version:

Deuteronomy 14:16-18 NASB
(16) the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
(17) the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,
(18) the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.

In the first post about the Wycliff translation, the Dipper was mentioned.

Since names change sometimes in translations, our new one seems to be a bit strange. This is not as hard to figure out. Ciconia is the Latin name used to for a genus of Storks.  See Wikipedia. One of the differences here is that it shows up in verse 16 and not in verse 18 as these mentioned. Whatever, it is still a kind of bird that was not to be eaten. It (Circonia) is used today for these Storks:

Wet Abdin’s Ibis at Jacksonville Zoo by Dan

Abdim’s Stork (Ciconia abdimii)

Woolly-necked Stork

Woolly-necked stork (Ciconia episcopus)

Storm’s Stork (Ciconia stormi) by Dan at Zoo Miami

Storm’s Stork (Ciconia stormi)

Maguari Stork (Ciconia maguari) ©©ClaudioTimm

Maguari Stork (Ciconia maguari) ©©ClaudioTimm

Maguari Stork (Ciconia maguari)

Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana) ©©Hiyashi Haka

Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana) ©©Hiyashi Haka

Oriental Stork (Ciconia bouciana)

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) ©WikiC

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) ©WikiC

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)

Another point about this name Ciconia is that the name used for the Order and the Family use a similar name:

Maybe, the Ciconia could be referring to the whole Order of Storks. See Birds of the Bible – Storks or Wikipedia Storks. I believe that is what most of the translations is indicating.

This version, Wycliffe, was taken from Bible Gateways site.

Birds of the Bible

Wordless Birds

Woodstock’s New Hairdo

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Today’s Peanut’s cartoon reminds me of the birds we saw at the Jacksonville Zoo recently. It had rained before and it rained while we were visiting.

Woodstock and Rain

“Poor Woodstock.. When he gets wet, he looks like an English Sheep-Bird!” [In case you can’t read it]

“Who does great things, and unsearchable, Marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth, And sends waters on the fields.” (Job 5:9-10 NKJV)

In Where Am I Found? – Abdim’s Stork, the first photo showed the stork still wet. Dan just showed me his photo of the Stork, which definitely shows a wet bird hairdo.

Wet Abdim’s Ibis at Jacksonville Zoo by Dan

My photo of this wet Ibis:

Abdim’s Stork (Ciconia abdimii) -Jacksonville Zoo wet

There were a few others that were not up to their normally sleek appearance.

Another wet avian wonder was the Yellow-billed Stork. He was damp, but not as wet as the Abdim’s Stork.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) Wet at Jacksonville Zoo

Are you taking a picture of me like this when I am not preened?

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) – Jacksonville Zoo

This is why you see so many birds preening. The Roseate Spoonbill was busy straightening and drying its feathers.

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) Preening – Jax Zoo

“Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food, And to the young ravens that cry.” (Psalms 147:8-9 NKJV)

There were a few others that were not up to their normally sleek appearance.

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Where Am I Found? – Abdim’s Stork

Some of the Other Jacksonville Zoo articles:

Jacksonville Zoo’s Noisy Stork Tree

Marabou Stork Chicks and Inca Tern at Jacksonville Zoo

Birdwatching at the Jacksonville Zoo by Dan’s Pix

Jacksonville Zoo’s Cape Thick-knee

Birds of the Bible – Black-faced Ibis at Jax Zoo by Dan

Birds of the Bible – Yellow-billed Storks at Zoo Tampa

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Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) ZTLP by Lee 032718

“And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.” (Deuteronomy 14:18 KJV)

We were at Lowry Park Zoo, now called Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park, and saw the Yellow-billed Storks in the Sulawesi aviary. This was the first time we have seen them in there. It gave a great opportunity to watch them up-close. Really, up-close! It was great!

Storks are mentioned in the Bible in five verses in the KJV. Leviticus 11:19, Deuteronomy 14:18, Psalm 104:18, Jeremiah 8:7, and Zechariah 5:9. The first two verses have to do with the “Do Not Eat” list, the next two with nesting and migration, and the last with a prophecy.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) ZTLP by Lee 032718

The Yellow-billed stork (Mycteria ibis), sometimes also called the wood stork or wood ibis, is a large African wading stork species in the family Ciconiidae. It is widespread in regions south of the Sahara and also occurs in Madagascar.

The yellow-billed stork is closely related to 3 other species in the Mycteria genus: the American woodstork (Mycteria americana), the milky stork (Mycteria cinerea) and the painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala). It is classified as belonging to one clade with these 3 other species because they all display remarkable homologies in behavior and morphology. In one analytical study of feeding and courtship behaviours of the wood-stork family, M.P. Kahl attributed the same general ethology to all members of the Mycteria genus, with few species-specific variations. [Probably only one of that genus was onboard the Ark] These four species are collectively referred to as the wood-storks, which should not be confused with one alternative common name (wood-stork) for the yellow-billed stork.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) ZTLP by Lee

Before it was established that the yellow-billed stork was closely related to the American woodstork, the former was classified as belonging to the genus Ibis, together with the milky stork and painted stork. However, the yellow-billed stork has actually long been recognised as a true stork and along with the other 3 related stork species, it should not strictly be called an ibis.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) ZTLP by Lee 032718

It is a medium-sized stork standing 90–105 cm (35–41 in) tall. The body is white with a short black tail that is glossed green and purple when freshly moulted. The bill is deep yellow, slightly decurved at the end and has a rounder cross-section than in other stork species outside the Mycteria. Feathers extend onto the head and neck just behind the eyes, with the face and forehead being covered by deep red skin. Both sexes are similar in appearance, but the male is larger and has a slightly longer heavier bill. Males and females weigh approximately 2.3 kg (5.1 lb) and 1.9 kg (4.2 lb) respectively.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) ZTLP by Lee

Colouration becomes more vivid during the breeding season. In the breeding season, the plumage is coloured pink on the upperwings and back; the ordinarily brown legs also turn bright pink; the bill becomes a deeper yellow and the face becomes a deeper red.

Their diet comprises mainly small, freshwater fish of about 60-100mm length and maximally 150g, which they swallow whole. They also feed on crustaceans, worms, aquatic insects, frogs and occasionally small mammals and birds.

This species appears to rely mainly on sense of touch to detect and capture prey, rather than by vision. They feed patiently by walking through the water with partially open bills and probe the water for prey. Contact of the bill with a prey item is followed by a rapid snap-bill reflex, whereby the bird snaps shut its mandibles, raises its head and swallows the prey whole.[3] The speed of this reflex in the closely related American woodstork (Mycteria americana) has been recorded as 25 milliseconds[15] and although the corresponding reflex in the yellow-billed stork has not been quantitatively measured, the yellow-billed stork’s feeding mechanism appears to be at least qualitatively identical to that of the American woodstork.

Wood Stork at Gatorland Walking Past Me

In addition to the snap-bill reflex, the yellow-billed stork also uses a systematic foot stirring technique to sound out evasive prey. It prods and churns up the bottom of the water as part of a “herding mechanism” to force prey out of the bottom vegetation and into the bird’s bill. The bird does this several times with one foot before bringing it forwards and repeating with the other foot. Although they are normally active predators, they have also been observed to scavenge fish regurgitated by cormorants.

[Information from Wikipedia with editing]

Timmy and the Stork

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