An adult pair of storks have accepted an abandoned chick as their own. View Full Caption Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society

THE BRONX — An abandoned stork egg has found a pair of surrogate parents at the Bronx Zoo.

The lesser adjutant storks recently hatched two chicks, one of which was abandoned by a different pair of storks that the zoo described as "inexperienced parents."

The other baby bird was theirs, zoo officials said.

Staff at the Ornithology Department found the abandoned egg in late May and moved it to an incubator, where it was monitored and deemed fertile.

When the egg was about to hatch, it was placed in the care of a pair of storks who were already nesting. The mother accepted the foster egg, and it hatched on June 27, followed soon after by the Aug. 5 birth of the storks' biological chick.

“The successful hatching and rearing is a testament to well developed husbandry techniques developed as part of the Bronx Zoo’s long-standing stork breeding program," WCS Executive Vice President and Bronx Zoo Director Jim Breheny said in a statement. “Working so closely with these birds at the Bronx Zoo gives us the opportunity to study and understand their behavior and reproductive biology."

Grown lesser adjutant storks are generally between 43 and 48 inches tall and have a wingspan of almost 7 feet. They are called "adjutant" because of "their military-looking posture and strut," according to the Bronx Zoo.

Habitat destruction has led to a steep decline in population for the storks, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has classified them as "vulnerable."

The Bronx Zoo is one of only three zoos in North America that works with the species.