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Mycteria americana
There are numerous amounts of plants and animals that have become endangered or threatened. In South Carolina, the wood stork is one of many bird species that are endangered.
The Mycteria americana, its scientific name, is a very large bird being forty inches long. It has a wingspan of sixty-one inches as shown in the picture below. The wood stork is white with black flight feathers and has a large bill. The bird wades in shallow waters with its bill down and snaps it shut to catch its prey. It breeds in colonies and nests in winter and spring.
The wood stork's habitat is in cypress swamps, marshes, ponds, and lagoons. They usually forge in fresh water including shallow marshes, flooded farm fields or ditches. Its nests may be ten to fifteen feet above water in mangroves or as high as eighty feet or higher in cypress trees. The wood stork's natural habitat is in Florida, but its breeding range has shifted north to South Carolina as shown in the map below. The red color indicates the critically imperiled conservation status in South Carolina.
Wood Storks do not mate until they are four years old. It takes one hundred thirty to one hundred fifty days to complete its reproductive cycle. Wood storks usually lay three to five eggs at a time; each egg hatching in the order it was laid. They feed on minnows and mullet. These birds also feed on snakes, small turtles, and frogs. To sustain their chicks and themselves, wood storks need four hundred forty-five pounds of fish during breeding season.
The destruction of wetlands due to massive human population growth is the main reason there are very few wood storks today. Hunters also kill them for their feathers. Major rookeries have been designed to protect the wood stork. The Everglades National Park has also designed habitats to assure the bird's protection. The Department of Energy (DOE), US Fish and Wildlife Service, Savannah River Ecology Lab of the University of Georgia, Auburn University, National Audubon Society, Soil Conservation Service, and E.I. du Ponte de Nemours Incorporation worked together to and designed an artificial foraging area at Kathwood Lake near Jackson, South Carolina. The health of our wetlands is indicated by the appearance of the wood stork. If the wood stork dies out, then so have our wetlands. The number of birds reported got as low as eight. As of the latest census, 806 pairs at 3 colonies in South Carolina (T. Murphy, pers. comm.) were recorded during 1993." (Ogden 1996). Now, there are four to five thousand pairs of wood storks living in the wild.
Adult Wood Storks
picture credit -
http://www.virtualbirder.com/cgi-bin/vbirder-boilerPlate/
SCW?CONFIG_ID=WOST&CONFIG_FILE=/vbirder/
FLORIDA/gallery/Gallery.dat&BAND=lo
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