Wood
stork
A.
Lawrence Bryan, Jr.
Bryan@srel.edu
Savannah
River Ecology Laboratory, P O Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802
The American wood stork (Mycteria americana) was classified as
a federally endangered species in 1984 due to population declines thought
to result from loss of wetland foraging habitats (U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service 1986, 1996). It is a frequent summer and fall visitor to wetlands
of the Savannah River Site (SRS), particularly the swamp system along
the Savannah River (SRSS), Carolina bays, and other ephemeral wetlands.
Storks typically use these wetlands as foraging sites, preying primarily
on fish. Storks generally occur in small flocks (of fewer than fifteen)
on the SRS, although large aggregations (of more than one hundred) appear
when foraging conditions are ideal.
Three
wood stork breeding colonies exist within 50 km (31 mi) of the SRS, but
storks do not breed on SRS. Two colonies, Birdsville and Chew Mill Pond,
in Jenkins County, Georgia, typically have a combined total of
300 to 350 stork nests. The Jacobson’s Landing colony in Screven
County, Georgia, is less consistent than the other colonies. It averages
only thirty to forty nests in good hydrologic years when sufficient rain
maintains water underneath the nest trees to limit predation by raccoons.
SREL
Reprint #2919
Bryan, A.L., Jr. 2005. Wood stork. p. 289-294. In Threatened and Endangered Species. In Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape: Fifty Years on the Savannah River Site, edited by J.C. Kilgo and J.I. Blake. Island Press.
