Mycteria Americana

Its late summer and the endangered North American Wood Stork, Mycteria Americana, is making its presence known.
The Wood Stork is easily identifiable by its huge size (our largest wading bird), long black trailing edge on underside of the wings (only visible in-flight), long downcurved bill, and when in flight it flies with both its feet and neck fully extended (un-like our herons, egrets, and pelicans), resembling the baby-delivering version from animated cartoon nostalgia. It requires fish filled shallows for working the mud with thier bill and snapping up fish. The speed with which they clamp down on fish is considered to be the fastest in the vertabrate world.
This avian giant was added to the endangered list in 1984 after decades of extreme population decline. The wood stork in considered a good bio-indicator species because its feeding and nesting sites are greatly effected by even subtle climate and habitat changes.
The Wood Stork population has shifted to the north in terms of nesting areas due to habitat alteration and destruction occuring in southern Florida. In 1960 the population was estimated at 20,000 breeding pairs, the current population is estimated at a total of 10,000 adult birds. Not all hope is lost; in many areas, such as South Carolina, their numbers are slowly but steadily climbing as the storks find new habitat.
Currently, wood storks can be seen throughout the lowcountry and we should continue to see them in the coastal region into the late-fall, after which they typically move further south and inland.
Shem Creek continues to offer sightings of wood storks resting on the wooden dock walkways behind shrimp boats. The Folly Beach estuaries and Long Island lagoons play host to scores of wood storks and roosting and feeding habitat. Many neighborhood drainage ponds and small saltwater lagoons provide great feeding shallows for the storks in both Mount Pleasant and James Island communities.
Wood storks also can be spotted in great numbers aboard the Bull Island Ferry in the Cape Romain NWR.
Join us on an expedition to add the wood stork to your life list of birding.