The Wood Stork is a species of stork that breeds across much of South America and coastal areas of Central America, the Caribbean, and Florida. They are mostly white in plumage with contrasting black flight feathers best seen in flight. Their heads are bald.
Wood Storks are large waders found around wetland habitats. They feed on aquatic prey items, including fish, frogs, insects, and crabs.
Wood Storks are colonial breeders, meaning that several pairs of birds will nest in close proximity to each other. Clutch size varies from one to five eggs, with three eggs being the most common. Incubation lasts around 30 days and the young birds take around 50 to 60 days to fledge.
Conservation
The Wood Stork is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be moderately small to large, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Brazilian (Português brasileiro)
Cabeça-seca
アメリカトキコウ [amerikatokikou]