By Emre Bastug, Sanja Janackovic
NIS, Serbia
A pair of white storks has continued to garner interest of residents at a small town in Serbia's southeastern city of Nis for more than a decade.
The pair made their first journey to the town of Medosevac 13 years ago.
Since then, they fly to the same rooftop every year. Locals take care of them.
The birds even attract outsiders and animal protection groups to the town.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ljubisa Tasic, a resident, said the storks are like neighbors to them.
Tasic said their nest was too close to the electrical cables during the first years, but last year the locals built a more secure nest for the storks.
One of the storks was hurt last year during a storm and treated by locals, said Dusan Stojanovic, head of Zooplanet, a local animal protection group.
"The people were mobilized for the injured stork," Stojanovic said.
According to Stojanovic, the female stork also injured her wing last May by a hunter but was given immediate medical care.
Police arrested the hunter after the incident.
"The storks were believed to bring luck and happiness, that's why the locals wanted them to nest at the roofs of their houses," Stojanovic added.
