Bird Conservation
> Waterbird Conservation >
Wood Stork
Mycteria americana
Family: CICONIIDAE
Order: Ciconiiformes
Spanish Common Name: Cigüeña americana
French Common Name: Tantale d'amérique
(c) Jim Fenton |
Courtesy Kenn Kaufman |
|
Conservation Status
Global Population: Unknown
Continental Population: 58,500
Watchlist Status: 
Audubon State of the Birds Status: Moderate population declines
Endangered or Threatened Status: Endangered
The striking, long-legged Wood Stork lives in colonies in cypress and mangrove swamps in the southeastern United States. It frequently flies in flocks, alternately flapping and gliding, or soaring on thermals to great altitudes. North America's only native stork, it is sometimes called "ironhead" or "flinthead" for its featherless, dark-skinned head.
Range & Distribution
In the United States, Wood Storks can be found year-round in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, the birds breed from Mexico to northern Argentina, and in the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. After nesting, some move into Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina, mainly along coastlines and large rivers. In the summer, flocks from western Mexico may appear in southern California and the American Southwest.
A legend for the range map to the right can be found here.
Population Status & Trends
During the 20th century, southern Florida's Everglades and Big Cypress populations shrank significantly due to habitat destruction and disruption of water flow; rookeries in Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana were also abandoned. However, populations in northern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina grew. Nesting in Georgia was first recorded in 1976, and in South Carolina in 1981. This northern shift in the bird's breeding range may have partially offset declines at traditional colony sites. The Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Plan for the South Atlantic Coastal Plain lists the Wood Stork among its highest priority species.
Conservation Issues & Efforts
Many Wood Stork nesting and feeding habitats have been destroyed by development and agricultural expansion, and water management practices that have disrupted natural flooding and drought cycles. Wood Stork nesting grounds must remain inundated during nesting season to prevent predation and abandonment. In addition, the birds require alternate periods of flooding, when fish populations multiply, and dryness, when shrinking pools concentrate the prey at higher densities. Increased manipulation of water levels in southern Florida via canals, levees, gates, and water storage has negatively impacted the storks. Other threats include raccoon predation, the failure of nest trees to regenerate, and human disturbance of stork rookeries.
However, Wood Storks can adapt to certain human-caused changes; they sometimes move to more suitable habitats when historic colonies are no longer viable. Others alter their behavior to meet the limitations of new environments—for instance, by nesting in smaller colonies, and feeding individually rather than in groups. The birds also use human-made or enhanced wetland sites for feeding and nesting. At Audubon's Silver Bluff Plantation Sanctuary in South Carolina, flocks of Wood Storks are drawn to artificial feeding ponds created specifically for them. The birds also nest successfully on artificial platforms erected at Georgia's Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. In coastal South Carolina, where water impoundments are managed for waterfowl, the storks are often attracted during "drawdowns."
What You Can Do
Support Audubon Florida's Everglades Campaign.
For other actions you can take, including Audubon activities, please visit our resources page.
For More Information
References
Coulter, M. C., J. A. Rodgers, J. C. Ogden, and F. C. Depkin. 1999. Wood Stork (Mycteria americana). In The Birds of North America, No. 25 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union.
Kaufman, Kenn. Lives of North American Birds, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1996.
Sibley, David Allen. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2000.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1996. Revised recovery plan for the U.S. breeding population of the wood stork. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Atlanta, Georgia.
|
