The white storks fly across the Sinai peninsula on their voyage. Sharm-el-Sheikh lies on the migratory path of storks coming from eastern Europe. Approximately 500,000 storks supposedly fly across the region. Many of these birds rest for a night in Ras Mohammad.
The majority of storks that breed in Europe spend the winter months in sub-Saharan Africa by migrating north in early spring and returning to the south come late summer.
White storks use flapping flights, so they can not cross the wide range of the Mediterranean Sea and must travel around instead. The heavy storks conserve energy by gliding instead of actively flaying all day at approximately 20 to 30 miles per hour.
Two routs dominate the migration :
The western route across the stairs of Gibraltar.
The eastern route over the Jordan valley crossing the mountain range during part of the day and continuing southwards along the dead sea towards the Sinai Peninsula.