3,185 Nests and “45,000 to 50,000 Pairs”: Counting Ukraine’s White Storks

In Ukrainian villages, the white stork (лелека білий in Ukrainian) builds large nests on utility poles and rooftops. How many pairs of this bird are nesting has been counted by an international census running since 1934. That it is a different species from the Japanese stork (Ciconia boyciana), and how its name is translated, is covered in our article on translating plant and animal names into Japanese.

In the 8th international census, held in 2024, 3,185 nests were counted in Ukraine. However, the figure for how many pairs there are in the country as a whole is a separate thing from the number of nests counted, and differs by who is publishing it and in which year.

An International Census That Began in 1934

According to the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds (Українське товариство охорони птахів, BirdLife International’s partner in Ukraine), the first international census was organized in 1934 by the Rossitten Bird Observatory in Germany. The 2nd was in 1958, the 3rd in 1974, and it has been held every ten years since then. It was not decadal from the very start.

The 7th census, in 2014–2015, was a joint project of the German conservation organization NABU and BirdLife International, with NABU compiling each country’s results. According to NABU’s institute, the global breeding population for that round was estimated at 265,000 to 280,000 pairs. For the 8th census, in 2024, the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds reports that 55 countries took part, with a provisional global estimate of about 330,000 breeding pairs, up 21% from 2014 (as of June 2025, 41 countries had submitted final data).

Separately from the international censuses, Ukraine has also carried out its own domestic surveys. The Ukrainian report for the 6th international census (by Vitaly Grishchenko, of the Kaniv Nature Reserve) states that domestic surveys were carried out in 1931, 1958, 1974, 1984, 1987–1988, and 1994–1995.

Ukraine’s Figures by Round

How Are Nests Counted?

According to the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds, under the international method a nest is counted as “occupied” if a pair remained near it for at least a month, regardless of whether chicks were successfully raised. The number of chicks is best counted in late June to early July, once they have grown large.

For the 2024 census, the Society set up a recording system through a smartphone app, and 86 volunteers submitted records for 1,210 nests. Kyiv Oblast had the most nests among the volunteer records, with 247. Separately, ornithologists surveyed 40 study plots across 7 oblasts (Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Kyiv, and Chernihiv). A study plot consists of one or more villages and the land between them, and the same area is surveyed every year to record the number of nests and breeding outcomes.

Of the 3,185 nests gathered this way, 2,312 (about 73%) were confirmed to have successfully raised chicks, with a total of 5,030 fledglings — an average of 2 per pair. The Society states that records from the southeast and east were sparse because of the full-scale fighting there.

Why Do Figures for “How Many Pairs” Diverge?

The nests counted are only a small fraction of the whole country. The total figure is estimated from the results of the areas surveyed and comparisons with the same villages in previous rounds. That is why the figures differ depending on who made the estimate and in which year.

• For 2004, Grishchenko applied the growth rates observed in the study plots and other factors to the 12,625 pairs recorded, arriving at an estimate of about 30,000 pairs.
• NABU’s summary table for the 7th round gives Ukraine’s 2014 figure as 35,000–45,000 pairs.
• In its announcement launching the 8th census, the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds relayed Grishchenko’s prior estimate that “about 30,000–35,000 pairs nest each year.” In its post-census announcement, it gave Ukraine’s 2024 breeding population as about 45,000–50,000 pairs, stating this “holds at the same level as the previous, 2014, international census.”

The 2014 figure does not line up: NABU’s table gives 35,000–45,000, while the Society’s 2024 announcement implies 2014 was at the same level as 2024’s 45,000–50,000. We could not confirm a source for this article that establishes which one is in error.

Where Are the Nests?

According to the 2004–2005 report, most white storks nest in western and northern Ukraine, with the highest density in the northwest, around Volyn and Lviv oblasts, decreasing toward the south and east. The eastern edge of the breeding range runs through Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts and Crimea, where storks nested in the north and along the shore of the Sivash. The report also notes that the breeding range has been gradually expanding eastward.

Where storks build nests has also changed. The same report states that nests on utility poles increased compared with the previous round (1994–1995), while nests on buildings fell 37.2% and nests in trees fell 16.9%. Flat-roofed water towers are also a well-used site, especially in the east. For the 8th round, the Society reported that the share of nests on utility poles had reached nearly 80%. It states that nests have thinned out where feeding grounds have shrunk due to declining livestock farming or the plowing of grassland and pasture, while they have increased in food-rich areas, such as around landfills near large cities.

The Stork in Folklore

The entry “Stork” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) (first appearing in the 1993 print encyclopedia), states that in Ukraine a wheel is sometimes placed on a building’s roof as a base for a nest. The same entry states that in Ukrainian and European folk belief, the stork is held to have the power to protect and help people, and that a village with many storks was thought to be blessed with good harvests. It is also treated as a bird that foretells weather: restless movement means bad weather is coming, standing on one leg means it will turn cold, and clattering its bill means clear weather. The belief that a house with a nest will live in peace, and the stork’s role in folktales, are also covered in our article on plant and animal names.

The Claim That It Is “Ukraine’s National Bird”

Some texts describe the white stork as “Ukraine’s national bird,” but Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine designates only three national symbols — the flag, the coat of arms, and the anthem — and we could not confirm any law designating a bird as a national symbol or national bird. The white stork also does not appear on the list in the Red Data Book approved in 2021. These points are covered in detail in our article on plant and animal names.