During the transfer of the most endangered nests of White Stork to the free-standing posts, performed during this winter, we measured their weight. We managed to obtain results for 88 nests. Despite the fact that this species has been perfectly examined, the weight of their nest has not been the subject of thorough examinations so far. Literature provides only some data on this subject. In Poland, 3 nests have been weighted, worldwide – only a few. Our results offer a significant practical meaning for people having a stork nest on the roof of the building, or for energy plants in case of nests on posts, since based on this data they are able to estimate the risk they pose for these structures.
The average weight of all nests is 346 kg (the lightest 70 kg, the heaviest 1250 kg). It turned out that on the basis of such a simple parameter as a height of the nest, you can estimate the weight of a stork nest with an extreme precision, since these two parameters are very strongly correlated. And therefore, a nest with a height of 0.5 m weighs approx. 300 kg, and a nest with a height of 1 meter - approx. 700 kg!
For few nests which size has never been reduced by people, we were able to estimate a precise age, which allowed us to estimate how much of a building material for a nest storks bring every year – more than 60 kg – which is almost 20 times their own weight!
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