White Storks in Ukraine 2025

A white stork is Ukrainians' favorite bird. The feathered friends nest near people's houses throughout most of Ukraine, except only a few eastern regions and the Crimean Peninsula. But the best chances to spot stork nests are in the countryside. The season lasts from April through August, with the first birds arriving in late March and the last ones leaving in early September.

In Ukrainian a stork is called "leleka" or "bus'ko". This glorious bird symbolizes welfare—those who have a stork nest next to their house can expect a great fortune. Some Ukrainians even decorate their backyards with stork statues just to have the lucky image in sight. A stork is also a symbol of faithfulness, as the mates are normally monogamous. Besides, these birds are loyal to their breeding grounds—they typically return to their last year's nesting sites.

White storks like nesting on the roofs, high trees, but most often on different pillars along the roads, and necessarily near water. Whenever you ride in a car or a train, keep your eyes peeled outside the window, and you'll surely spot a few stork nests up there, sometimes empty, while sometimes with a stork or a whole stork family inside. It's also possible to glimpse a stork or two graciously floating above fields or leisurely strolling around in search of food.

As nights get colder by the end of summer, these warm-loving birds get ready for the journey to their wintering grounds in Africa and South Asia. Large flocks of storks gather in the fields and perform a sort of farewell ritual whirling in the sky before they finally depart. Such storks' performance is a stunning and moving spectacle to behold. It's always sad to say goodbye, but luckily, these birds are coming back in half a year.