Bio Facts About Wood Stork

The Wood Stork
Wood storks, one of the largest birds in the world, have a special appearance that people can easily identify. There are several species that are in the same family of wood stork worldwide. They are usually found in the wetlands, where they find their food. They use their powerful bills to catch prey in muddy waters with high concentrations of fish (Mel Baughman, 2003, p. 82). These endangered species are well adapted to their environment and are one of the top predators in their habitat. There are several characteristics including physical and habitual features that help wood stork survive in their habitat.
Name
The scientific name of the wood stork is Mycteria Americana (Bio Facts: Wood Stork). Wood storks’ offspring are commonly
called chick or hatchling, but there is no specific name for male and female storks. The interesting thing is that even though there are definite differences between wood stork and ibises, they are often called wood ibises, which can bring confusion with ibises (Burton, 1994, p.54). The wood stork contains the word wood for two reasons. The reason why wood stork contains the word wood is because of its characteristics. They prefer resting and nesting in trees than on the ground. Also, their communication method, which is clocking their bills, sounds like crushing two pieces of the wood (Bio Facts: Wood Stork).
Anatomy/Appearance
The wood stork has a naked, blackish head, two eyes on each side of its head, no teeth, and one large bill that is down-curved at the end.
They are generally covered with white feathers on their wings and black feathers at the tip of the wings and their tails are covered with only black feathers. They do not have a crest, horn, or antlers. Although they catch their prey in the water, they do not have webbed toes. Wood Storks also have a long and half-naked neck, two long legs, and two large wings. They are one of the biggest birds that can fly; they are 40 inches tall, with a wingspan of 61 inches long (Mel Baughman, 2003, p. 82). They are about 1-3.4 kilogram. Both sexes’ appearance looks same, but generally the male stork is bigger and heavier than the female stork (Perrins, 2003, p. 107). They have seven body parts; the head including the beak, neck, back, chest, abdomen, wings, tail, and legs including their
feet.
Locomotion
Wood storks are birds that can fly.
They usually run before they fly to get off from the ground. Also, with their neck extended wood storks fly, which most of the storks do. They use the soaring method, which is called soaring flight, when their destination is far away (Behavior). When they use soaring flight, storks usually reach high altitudes and then glide down to their destination (Perrins, 2003, p. 107). Generally, soaring flight requires less energy than flapping flight; it nearly costs one-tenth the energy of flapping the wings. However, when they are planning to travel to a nearby site, they usually flap their wings instead of using soaring flight (Behavior). Wood storks walk slowly on the ground and in the water. However, they fly fast in the sky. Flying fast is important to wood storks because they need enough speed to maintain
flying.
Diet
The wood stork is a carnivorous bird and usually gets its prey from the wetlands and rice-fields along the Southern Atlantic and the Gulf Coast. They are one of the top predators in the wetlands. Its major food sources are things that are easily found in standing water. For example, fish, frogs, snakes, aquatic worms, crabs, and crayfish are their usual prey (Mel Baughman, 2003, p. 82). These opportunistic birds use their strong beaks to grab and hold their prey (Alderton, 2012, p. 74). Wood storks sometimes form a line so that they can trap their prey, which is unusual. However, wood storks commonly find their prey by immersing their beaks into the water waiting for their prey to pass by. When the bird feels the prey, it snaps the prey and swallows it. They do not chew or break down their food (Mel Baughman, 2003, p. 82).
Habitat and Range Wood storks prefer swamps with high concentrations of fish for their nesting place. They are spread in tropical rainforests and tropical deciduous forests in South and North America. They nest in forests with swamps or river-bottom forests that are periodically wet. They usually raise their chicks in the Southern part of North America. In the United States, wood storks nest mainly from Florida up to coastal South Carolina. Their nesting places and breeding area also include locations in Mexico and the Caribbean. For the winter, wood storks migrate to Northern parts of South America; the furthest they travel is to northern Argentina (Mel Baughman, 2003, p. 82-3).