* Side note.  Ever since I sat down to post this I’ve been singing ‘hungry like the wolf‘.  Someone please get it out of my head*

Recently, a three year old Hungarian stork that had damaged its beak was found and taken to the Hortobagy Birds’ Hospital where he/she was given a new one.  Well, an artificial one made from resin.  The operation was performed by Tamas Kothay who rebuilt the lower beak and created the synthetic beak for the top.  If the bird recovers 100% he/she will be released back into the wild.

Without the operation the bird would have required hand-feeding for the rest of his/her life.  The bird hospital first opened it’s doors in 1991 and has a “return to wild” rate of 40%!  That is pretty awesome.

Still, it’s no surprise that the stork was given some pretty special treatment, since one of Hungary’s favorite bird is the stork.  Two varieties, the White Stork (Fehér Gólya) and the Black Stork (Fekete Gólya), are indigenous to Hungary and both are a protected species.  Both species spend March to October in Hungary before heading to the sub-Saharan Africa.  The Black storks are the more reclusive birds, living in the forest and marshes.  The White stork is more common and are actually easy to spot and seem to enjoy living amongst humans.  It is estimated that 80% of stork couples (awww) nest on the tops of telephone poles.

While the storks are a feature in the Hungarian landscape they are still protected and face endangerment.  Like other animals (lots of other animals), the stork is a victim of modernization.  Many storks are dying from falling into electrical wires on telephone and electricity poles where they nest.  Hungary installed approximately 2,000 special nest-supports in the 80’s but now the supports are slow to be installed.

Hungary is a current participant in the White Stork Protection in the Carpathian Basin program, a cross-border environmental project sponsored by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe.

But is it going to be enough?  Some, like Gergő Halmos from the Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Conservation Society, thinks that they are on the right track.  He says more Hungarians are beginning to participate in bird conservation saying “For cultural reasons, the White Stork is quite an important bird in Hungary and it is the species best known by the average person.”

It’s really a great story.  A beloved bird, the stork, gets hurts and humans help it to get better.  On the other hand, my little activist hand, humans continue to remove the birds original habitat (trees) so they are forced to house on the tops of poles.  Then they become endangered because of electrocution.  Humans displace thousands (millions?) of animals every year/month/day/second.  Maybe instead of taking action after we’ve almost killed the entire species of animals we should think about their habitats when developing our environment.  Dunno.  Just a thought.