Czech Ornithologists were surprised to discover that two female storks lived in the same nest and took turns incubating the eggs.
Two female storks live together and take turns incubating the eggs. Photo: CAM Chýnov
A female stork found a suitable mate to mate with, surprising experts. After a few days of mating, ornithologists realized that both were female. The nest, located across from the Holy Trinity Church in Chýnov, a town in the Czech Republic, has been closely monitored by a team of ornithologists via webcam since early March, Newsweek reported on May 18.
The story began on March 19, when a female stork that had raised three chicks in the area last year flew to the nest. Local ornithologist Michael Strnad, who has been monitoring the nest, named it Loňská. Three days later, another stork with a black ear spot visited Loňská but was immediately chased away.
For two weeks, the stork, named Loňská, rejected every suitor and pecked a series of eager males. On April 11, the black-spotted stork returned, pecking repeatedly at Loňská's beak until she was allowed to enter the nest. The pair spent the night together and mated repeatedly for the next six days. Strnad named the second stork Jupiter.
On April 17, an egg appeared in the nest. The next day, Loňská laid a second egg. Strnad said this was unusual because storks tend to lay eggs continuously. However, the following evening, Jupiter sat on the egg at 9:23 p.m. When she stood up at 9:30 p.m., there were three eggs underneath her. That was how Strnad realized Jupiter was a female.
From then until April 24, the two female storks took turns laying eggs every night. The pair laid a total of eight eggs and took turns tending the nest. The female will sit on them until mid-May, when the chicks are ready to hatch. "It will be interesting to see if any of the eggs hatch because the pair are paired in the nest, so there is a high chance that the eggs are unfertilized," the ornithologist said.
Same-sex pairing is relatively common among birds, with more than 130 species engaging in the behavior at least occasionally, according to Zdeněk Vermouzek, director of the Czech Ornithological Society. Sometimes, the pair raise their young together.
Pairing between two females is most common in species that mate for life, with both parents involved in raising the young. Most storks do not pair for life, instead remaining with their partner at the beginning of each breeding season. However, this is the first known case of homosexuality in a white stork. Ornithologists will continue to monitor the nest until the eggs hatch.
An Khang (According to Newsweek )
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