Fauna Glossary
Woodstork
The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a tropical species that breeds in much of South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The Wood Stork is the only stork that presently breeds in North America - there is a small and endangered breeding population in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, along with a recently discovered rookery in southeastern North Carolina United States.
The adult is a large bird - typically 31/2 ft.(1 m) tall with a 5ft.(1.5 m) wingspan, weighing 5lb (2.4 kg). It appears all white on the ground, with blackish-gray legs and pink feet. In flight better visible, the trailing edge of the wings is an iridescent reddish black and iridescent greenish black tailfeathers. The head is dark brown with a bald, brownish black face, and the thick downcurved bill is dusky yellow. The neck has a bark like structure - probably the reason for the name. Juvenile birds are a duller version of the adult, generally browner on the neck, and with a paler bill.
It flies (other then Herons or Egrets) with its neck outstretched and legs extended. It walks slowly and steadily in shallow water up to its belly in open wetlands seeking its prey, which, like that of most of its relatives, consists of fish, frogs and large insects. The wood stork forages for food usually where lowering water levels concentrate fish.
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It is a resident breeder in wetlands with trees. The large stick nest is built in a forest tree. They breed once a year, and 3-5 eggs are laid in the typical clutch. The eggs are incubated 27-32 days by both sexes. Their reproductive cycle is triggered when waterholes dry up sufficiently to concentrate fish in sufficient numbers for efficient feeding of the chicks.
This species seems to have evolved in tropical regions; its North American presence probably postdates the last ice age. Older fossils from that continent are of an extinct larger relative, M. wetmorei. This was probably a sister species; both occurred sympatrically on Cuba at the end of the Pleistocene.
