White storks breeding in Britain but no plans to try introduce them here

White storks do visit Ireland occasionally. The vagabonds tend to be waifs and strays which have lost their way while migrating.

A white stork flying above Knepp estate in West Sussex. A project to reintroduce the birds as a breeding species to England has created wild colonies producing dozens of chicks each year.  Picture: Charlie Burrell/Knepp/PA Wire 

‘We have watched the storks and the swallows; the summer birds have come and are gone again’ – Giraldus Cambrensis, History of the Conquest of Ireland

White storks are breeding again in Britain. They had not done so since 1416 when a pair nested in Edinburgh. As part of a ‘rewilding’ project at the 1,400 hectare Knepp Castle Estate in Sussex, rehabilitated storks were imported from Warsaw Zoo. Three pairs nested in 2020 and more than 50 chicks fledged this year.