After being just a stop on the stork's migration

 path towards Africa, Spain has become a destination for these birds that are increasingly settling in the European country, where they find food leftovers left by humans to eat.

Hundreds of white and black pavilions flutter between the tractors and over a large area in which colored bags of garbage were thrown, which is a landfill in the Pinto region, about thirty kilometers south of Madrid.

The storks indulge in the stinky waste away from the tractors that level the waste and then grind it.

"For us they are part of the landscape," says Carlos Pinto, the technical expert at the landfill, smiling and looking at the flock of birds. Every day, between 200 and 300 tons of food waste is thrown into the landfill, which has become a target for storks. Pinto points out that the birds "go to sites that smell freshly discarded waste.

This phenomenon is observed in various parts of Spain, as landfills attract storks and change not only their eating habits but also their migration route.

In Alcala de Henares, the capital of Spain's storks and located east of Madrid, this type of bird is a symbol that prompts ornithologists from different countries of Europe to visit the region. "Look around, storks are everywhere," says Almudena Soriano, a municipal veterinarian.

Storks nest in the towers, can be heard in the streets, and a sight in the sky is a common sight.