There comes a point in every child’s life when they ask where babies come from, and some parents — not wanting to explain the details of reproduction quite yet — turn to the story of the stork. Even if adults don’t use the stork story, kids are often exposed to the myth of storks delivering babies via the media. Disney’s 1941 animated classic Dumbo — which starts with a scene of the long-legged birds dropping bundled-up babies to their circus animal parents — is the most famous example. Historians think the story about storks bringing babies actually took off thanks to the migration of real-life storks in northern Europe — particularly in Germany and Norway — during the medieval era. Couples would often get married around the summer solstice because of the season’s association with fertility. Nine months later, many of these newlyweds would be welcoming newborns into the world, which just so happened to coincide with storks migrating back to Europe in the spring after having spent the winter in Africa. At some point, the folklore that the returning storks were bringing the babies began circulating. Kids wanting a new sibling would try to tempt the birds to their house with songs and sweets. The baby-bringing stork myth also independently developed in America, with the Sioux version being about wood storks, rather than white storks. While it’s no longer as common to tell curious kids the avian tale educationally, it's still pervasive culturally. In addition to showing up in media and on cards, clothing, and gifts for new babies, the myth has even infiltrated the medical world: a birthmark on the back of a baby’s head or neck is often called a “stork bite.”
