First white stork chicks born in Britain for 600 years peer out of their nest for first time

The first white storks born in Britain for 600 years have delighted bird watchers – by peering out of their nest for the first time.

Pictures show the moment a parent arrives at its nest at Knepp Castle near Horsham, West Sussex – with the chicks clearly visible.

The baby birds were born earlier this month as a result of the White Stork Project, which is attempting to bring the breed back to Britain after the first flock arrived from Warsaw Zoo in Poland in 2016.

It is thought that the white stork – once native to the British Isles – was once widely distributed across the nation but eventually died out.

A combination of habitat loss, overhunting and targeted persecution are all cited as contributing factors to their decline.

The project – a partnership of private landowners and nature conservation organisations – is working to restore a population of 50 breeding pairs.

It was confirmed that there were five eggs in the nest in a large oak tree at Knepp Castle in April.

A spokesperson for the project said that the female is a ringed bird from the project, which came to the site in 2016 from Poland.

The male has no identifying ring so this is likely to be one of the twenty or so vagrant storks which visit Britain each year.

Isabella Tree, co-owner of Knepp with Charlie Burrell, said earlier this month: ‘When I hear that clattering sound now, coming from the tops of our oak trees where they’re currently nesting at Knepp, it feels like a sound from the Middle Ages has come back to life.

‘We watch them walking through the long grass on their long legs, kicking up insects and deftly catching them in their long beaks as they go – there’s no other bird that does that in the UK.

‘It’s walking back into a niche that has been empty for centuries.’