How to Identify aWood Stork
Mycteria americana · 33.5–45.3 in (85–115 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
White body with black wingtips and tail, and a bald grayish-black head on a heavy downcurved bill. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male but smaller.
Male photo: Peterwchen / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Second photo: Peterwchen / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Bare dark unfeathered head and neck
- Heavy, thick, slightly downcurved bill
- Black trailing edge across the whole wing in flight
- Soars with the neck outstretched, unlike a heron
Similar species
What it sounds like
Adults are essentially silent, giving only hisses and bill clatters.
Behaviour that gives it away
Feeds by touch with its bill open underwater, snapping shut in as little as 25 milliseconds when a fish brushes it.
Habitat & range
Cypress swamps, mangroves, marshes and flooded fields in Florida and the Gulf states.
When you'll see it
Present all year in southeastern North America.
What it eats
Fish, crayfish and amphibians caught by touch in shallow, drying pools.
Did you know?
Its bill snaps shut faster than almost any other vertebrate’s, which is how it can feed by touch alone in muddy water.
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