For humans, we do have staycation. As for white storks not wanting to leave landfills, they do what is called "storkcation." Storkcation means storks opting to remain where they migrate or becoming a resident to where they migrate.
Well, supposedly white stork birds' preferred habitats are riverbanks, marshes, swamps, ditches, grasslands and meadows. White storks tend to avoid areas that are overgrown with tall trees and shrubs but interestingly these birds did a long storkcation in landfills feeding in a rubbish junk.
Storks are carnivorous, the white stork eats a wide range of animal prey, including insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and small birds. It takes most of its food from the ground, among low vegetation, and from shallow water. It is a monogamous breeder but does not pair for life. Both members of the pair build a large stick nest, which may be used for several years. Each year the female can lay one clutch of usually four eggs, which hatch asynchronously 33-34 days after being laid. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and both feed the young. The young leave the nest 58-64 days after hatching and continue to be fed by the parents for a further 7-20 days.
Research leader and conservation ecologist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K Aldina Franco explain Portugal's resident stork population has grown from just 1,187 birds in 1995 to some 14,000 where 80 percent of storks during winter in the region congregate near landfills. Franco thinks that these landfill sites facilitated the storks staying in their breeding sites all year because they now have a fantastic, reliable food source all year round.
In the end, Franco's research team believes that this sort of pattern of migratory species becoming resident occurs rather frequently, and has occurred many times over the evolutionary history of birds, such as North America's Canada goose and turkey vulture.
