CDC Logo

BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Mycteria americana
Wood Stork

 
Scientific Name: Mycteria americana Linnaeus, 1758
English Name: Wood Stork
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-WOST
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Ciconiiformes Ciconiidae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G4 (Nov 1996)
Provincial Status: SNA (Mar 2015)
BC List: Accidental
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 8 - Accidental (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: A large, tall bird with long, broad wings; black flight feathers and tail contrast with white body; adult has bare, dark-gray head (feathered and grayish brown in immature); bill is long, thick, and downcurved; averages 102 cm long, 155 cm wingspan (NGS 1983).
Global Reproduction Comments: Nesting is tied to receding water levels and concentration of food sources, regardless of date. Clutch size is 2-5 (often 3). Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 28-32 days. Both parents tend young, which leave nest at 50-55 days (also reported as 9 weeks), return to nest for feeding and roosting until 75 days old. Nests in colonies of a few to thousands of pairs.

In Georgia, nesting was most successful if nesters did not experience (a) periods of cold weather and (b) raccoon predation that was associated with drying of the water under the colony (Coulter and Bryan 1995).
Global Ecology Comments: Notably gregarious. Roosts communally.

In Georgia, lower water level led to lower nesting success because of increased predation of young, presumably by alligators (Ruckdeschel and Shoop 1989). Rise in water level during nesting period may result in breeding colony abandonment (Ramo and Busto 1992).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		Y /
N /
N /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Individuals from Mexican west coast are regular post-breeding migrants in California and Arizona; breeders from eastern Mexico appear in Texas and Louisiana (Matthews and Moseley 1990).
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence)
Global Habitat Comments: Chiefly freshwater situations: marshes, swamps, lagoons, ponds, flooded fields; depressions in marshes are important during drought; also occurs in brackish wetlands. Nests mostly in upper parts of cypress trees, mangroves, or dead hardwoods over water or on islands along streams or adjacent to shallow lakes. Feeds in freshwater marshes, swamps, lagoons, ponds, flooded pastures and flooded ditches, depressions in marshes (especially during drought).
Food Habits: Piscivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Eats mainly fishes (usually over 3.5 cm long), also miscellaneous other small animals, detected mainly by contact with touch-sensitive bill. Forages mainly in shallow water (about 15-50 cm deep) and flooded fields; attracted to areas with falling water level and hence concentrated food sources (Palmer 1962, Ogden et al. 1978). May feed cooperatively, wading together in shallow water (Hilty and Brown 1986). Conservative estimate is that one pair requires about 200 kg of fish in one breeding season to supply needs of adults and young (see Van Meter 1989). May travel long distances (sometimes over 100 km, usually not more than 56 km) between nesting and feeding areas when feeding young (Ogden et al. 1978).
Global Phenology: Circadian: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: Y
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 102/ / 2702
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: Resident from southern Sonora, Mexican Plateau (rarely), U.S. Gulf Coast (Florida, formerly west to Texas), and Atlantic coast (South Carolina to southern Florida), south in lowlands to South America (to western Ecuador, eastern Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina), and Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola). The southeastern U.S. population is probably disjunct from those in Mexico-Central America. Some individuals, especially juveniles, wander north after the breeding season; may occur up the Mississippi Valley to Arkansas and west Tennessee and up the Atlantic coast to North Carolina; Mexican breeders may range to Texas and Louisiana. Recent breeding in the U.S. has occurred in Florida, southeastern Georgia (Ruckdeschel and Shoop 1989, Bratton and Hendricks 1990), and South Carolina. Center of breeding range in the U.S. has shifted northward since the mid-1970s (Ogden et al. 1987); the Everglades has become of lesser importance as a breeding area but remains critical as a foraging area, especially during dry years (Ehrlich et al. 1992), when possibly as much as 55% of the total U.S. population may use the Water Conservation Areas north of Everglades National Park (at least 8-10% in wet years) (Bancroft et al. 1992). Southeastern U.S. breeders winter within the breeding range, rarely north to northwestern Florida and coastal Georgia. In the U.S., the highest winter densities occur in peninsular Florida (Gulf and Atlantic coasts) (Root 1988).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: Hammerson, G.
Last Updated: Apr 05, 1996
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Bancroft, G. T., W. Hoffman, R. J. Sawicki, and J. C. Ogden. 1992. The importance of the Water Conservation Areas in the Everglades to the endangered Wood Stork (MYCTERIA AMERICANA). Conservation Biology 6:392-398.
Bentzien, Michael M. 1986. Recovery Plan for the U.S. Breeding population of the wood stork. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 33 pp.
Bratton, S. P., S. Hendricks. 1990 (1988). Wood stork nesting, roosting, and foraging at Cumberland Island, Georgia. Oriole 53:17-24.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT. Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, and M.C.E. McNall. 1990. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 1. Nonpasserines: Introduction, Loons through Waterfowl. Royal B.C. Mus. in association with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. 514pp.
Coulter, M. C. 1990. Creation and management of artificial foraging habitat for wood storks. Pages 262-267 in Mitchell et al., eds. Ecosystem management: rare species and significant habitats. New York State Museum. Bull. 471.
Coulter, M. C., and A. L. Bryan, Jr. 1995. Factors affecting reproductive success of wood storks (MYCTERIA AMERICANA) in east-central Georgia. Auk 112:237-243.
Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1992. Birds in Jeopardy: the Imperiled and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. 259 pp.
Hancock, J. A., J. A. Kushlan, and M. P. Kahl. 1992. Storks, ibises and spoonbills of the world. Academic Press, San Diego, California. iv + 336 text pages.
Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
Matthews, J.R. and C.J. Moseley (eds.). 1990. The Official World Wildlife Fund Guide to Endangered Species of North America. Volume 1. Plants, Mammals. xxiii + pp 1-560 + 33 pp. appendix + 6 pp. glossary + 16 pp. index. Volume 2. Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fishes, Mussels, Crustaceans, Snails, Insects, and Arachnids. xiii + pp. 561-1180. Beacham Publications, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Ogden, J. C. and B. W. Patty. 1981. The recent status of the Wood Stork in Florida and Georgia. Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Game and Fish Division Technical Bulletin WL 5:97-101.
Ogden, J. C., and S. A. Nesbitt. 1979. Recent wood stork population trends in the United States. Wilson Bulletin 91: 512-523.
Ogden, J. C., C. E. Knoder, and A. Sprunt, IV. 1989. Colonial wading bird populations in the Usumacinta delta, Mexico. Pp. 595-605 IN Ecologia y conservacion del Delta de los rios Usumacinta y Grijalva (Memorias). INIREB, Division Regional. Tabasco, Mexico.
Ogden, J. C., D. A. McCrimmon, Jr., G. T. Bancroft, and B. W. Patty. 1987. Breeding populations of the wood stork in the southeastern United States. Condor 89:752-759.
Ogden, J. C., J. A. Kushlan, and J. T. Tilmant. 1978. The food habits and nesting success of wood storks in Everglades National Park 1974. U.S.D.I. National Park Service, National Research Repirt No. 16. 25 pp.
Palmer, R. S. (editor). 1962. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 1. Loons through flamingos. Yale University Press, New Haven. 567 pp.
Ramo, C., and B. Busto. 1992. Nesting failure of the wood stork in a neotropical wetland. Condor 94:777-781.
Rodgers, J. A., Jr. 1990. Breeding chronology and clutch information for the wood stork from museum collections. J. Field Ornithology 61:47-53.
Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
Ruckdeschel, C., and C. R. Shoop. 1989 (1987). Aspects of wood stork nesting ecology on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Oriole 52:21-27.
Spendelow, J. A. and S. R. Patton. 1988. National Atlas of Coastal Waterbird Colonies in the Contiguous United States: 1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.
Stangel, P. W., J. A. Rodgers, Jr., and A. L. Bryan. 1990. Genetic variation and population structure of the Florida wood stork. Auk 107:614-619.
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). 1990. Endangered and threatened species recovery program: report to Congress. 406 pp.
Van Den Bussche, R. A., S. A. Harmon, R. J. Baker, A. L. Bryan, Jr., J. A. Rodgers, Jr., M. J. Harris, and I. L. Brisbin, Jr. 1999. Low levels of genetic variability in North American populations of the Wood Stork (MYCTERIA AMERICANA). Auk 116:1083-1092.
Van Meter, V. B. 1989. Florida's wood storks. Revised edition of 1985 publication. Florida Power & Light Company, Miami. 26 pp.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1996. Species Summary: Mycteria americana. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 6, 2026).