I love absolutely everything about this story! For starters, the picture is undeniably comedic. The arrow is nearly the size of the bird! And yet not only did the Stork survive the attack, it subsequently flew between five and ten thousand kilometres to Northern Europe. The extra weight alone must have been a considerable percentage of its own bodyweight.

Unfortunately for the Stork its luck wasn’t about to get any better, as having arrived in Germany it drew attention to itself from Biologists who wanted to know where the arrow had come from. So they shot it, and stuffed it. Bad news for the Stork.

Good news for the biologists though as they finally had proof that these birds flew thousands of miles to migrate seasonally each year. They didn’t, as had been also hypothesised, hibernate, morph into smaller birds or mice, or lay dormant at the bottom of ponds.

Around 25 migratory birds with arrows in them have been found in Germany alone over the years. As is the German way, a “say what you see” compound name, Pfeilstorch, Arrow Stork, was given to them.

Finally, its worth noting that the appearance of Pfeilstorch has dwindled over the years and none have been seen since 1969. Have Storks stopped migrating? It seems unlikely. African hunters are just now more likely to use firearms, which have migrated south over the intervening 150 years. Carried by men, rather than birds. Too heavy, you see - it’s all a matter of weight ratios.

-Bill