Wood Storks

Wood Storks are the only storks that breed in the U.S. They are large wading birds and they have long beaks, like pelicans, without the pouches, that they can close very quickly around the fish they trap to eat. They use their long beaks to make clacking noises too. They have bare naked heads like vultures and long legs like many other wading birds. While wading, or perching wood storks look ungainly, but they are quite distinctive and beautiful in flight with their necks out stretched, large black and white wingspan, and legs extended behind them. They live and breed in colonies with several pairs building stick nests in wet land area trees. The young wood storks are not precocial like killdeer or chickens but altricial, unable to find food or hide from predators shortly after hatching, so both parents care and feed them until they fledge and can find their own food. A large colony of wood storks have decided that the trees in the African animal exhibit area at the Jacksonville Zoo is the ideal place for a rookery but my favorite wood stork rookery is at Etowah Park where Kings Bay Naval Submarine base meets Crooked River State Park.