Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

The Stork in the Sky Knows Her Season

This October, Israel’s skies host the annual migration of about half a billion birds. More than 400 known bird species cross Israel en route from Europe to winter homes in Africa, including 85% of the world’s white stork population and many species of birds of prey. According to ornithologists, the region experiences this phenomenon because it is at a “bottleneck” in migratory flyways. International volunteers are assisting the Israeli Society for the Protection of Nature in its yearly survey of the birds’ journey. But it is not only experts and amateur enthusiasts who will be taking note: the survey is partly funded by the Israeli Air Force, which schedules its own flight patterns to avoid the seasonal visitors.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.