July 20, 2026 – Germany has more white stork breeding pairs this year than it did a century ago, with the number across the country expected to exceed 15,000 pairs this season, according to Naturschutzbund Deutschland, the largest German environmental association.
The number of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) breeding pairs is the highest since the start of systematic records, NABU said in a July 20 statement. Unlike many other species, the white stork now has a favourable conservation status, according to Bernd Petri from NABU’s white stork working group.
The white stork was long considered a cause for concern, with the population in the 1980s falling to below 3,000 breeding pairs in East and West Germany combined, and storks disappearing entirely from many regions, according to NABU. A lack of food due to more intensive agriculture and land drainage, as well as dangers along the migration routes hurt the species, the association said.
The population trend prompted conservation measures such as re-wetting and land management tailored to white storks. However, the adaptability of the species has been the biggest factor in the recovery, with a change in migration patterns that has increased survival rates, according to NABU.
Germany’s white stork population is divided between birds that migrate using an eastern route via the Balkans and the Near East to Africa, whereas migrating western storks now overwinter in Spain rather than continuing to North and West Africa as they used to do, according to Petri.
The shorter migration route is a major advantage, boosting survival rates, with the western migrants returning earlier and in good shape. Thirty years ago, three quarters of Germany’s white storks used to take the eastern migratory route. That ratio is now reversed, with three quarters migrating via the western route, Petri said.
Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg are now the German states with the most white storks, whereas historically Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg in the north-east of the country had the biggest populations.
White storks in Germany can now be observed gathering into migratory flocks, with the first departures expected in the first days of August, NABU said. The young typically set off first, as the parents often weigh less than their offspring after the rearing period and will build up reserves before setting off for the south later.
Final figures for breeding success are not yet available, though things are “looking very good” from Schleswig-Holstein to Lower Saxony, while in central and eastern Germany, the breeding season is looking average. Heatwaves in late May and late June had little effect on the chicks, though soils were so dry in some areas that storks found it difficult to peck for earthworms, the main food source for their young.
Germany recorded around 14,500 breeding pairs of white storks in 2025, according to NABU figures, including 2,737 pairs in Lower Saxony and 2,602 pairs in Baden-Württemberg.