Wood Stork


Mycteria americana

Endangered

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USFWS photo/Don Pfitzer

Range

Wood storks are large long-legged birds, up to 4 feet tall. They are mostly white, with black tails. Wood storks are wading birds that feed on small fish. They have an amazing adaptation to catch these fish. A wood stork bill snaps shut on a fish in 25 milliseconds, making it one of the fastest reflexes in all vertebrates. Wood storks are highly colonial, living in large rookeries.

Forest Dependence

Wood storks nest in the highest branches of cypress and mangrove trees. Each wetland tree provides nests for several wood stork pairs. The nesting grounds can be up to 80 miles to the feeding grounds. Wood storks soar on thermals to get between sites. Like most wetlands, cypress and mangrove wetlands have declined greatly in the past 100 years. Along with the diminishing forested wetland nesting habitat, wood storks' feeding habitat has decreased by over 35 percent since 1900.

Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests (Georgia)