Wood Storks are large wading birds, easily distinguished by their dark featherless heads, long heavy bills, and white plumage trimmed with black. A symbol of Florida’s disappearing wetlands, the Wood Stork is now listed as an endangered species with widespread loss of wetlands over the past century greatly reducing the number of these birds. In the Everglades, the Wood Stork is considered an indicator species, and is closely monitored as a determining factor in the health of the entire Everglades ecosystem.

Wood Storks feed not by sight, but by touch, using a technique known as “tacto-location”. In the shallow and often muddy water full of plants in which it feeds, fish can’t be seen. Walking slowly forward, the bird sweeps its submerged bill from side to side. Touching prey, mostly small fish, the bill snaps shut with a 25 millisecond reflex action, the fastest known for vertebrates. Only seasonally drying wetlands concentrate enough fish to provide the over 400 pounds of food a pair of these big birds requires in a breeding season. Gatorland hosts a year-round colony of these endangered birds, which can be found throughout the park.

White Ibis are one of the most numerous wading birds in Florida, and common in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, Mexico, Cuba, and northern South America. Highly sociable at all seasons, they roost and feed in flocks, and nest in large colonies. Gatorland plays host to hundreds of White Ibis who roost in the safety of the trees and bushes throughout the Alligator Breeding Marsh. A medium sized white bird with long, curved red bill, red legs and feet, the White Ibis inhabit salt, brackish, and fresh water marshes, mangroves and rice fields. They may forage in any kind of shallow water, commonly flying to feed in fresh water even in coastal regions. Foraging sites include marshes, lake edges, mudflats, and mangrove lagoons, as well as flooded pastures and grassy fields.

Diet is varied, and includes insects, snails, snakes, frogs, worms, and small fish with crustaceans such as crayfish and crabs being major items. White Ibis forage by walking slowly in shallow water, sweeping their bill from side to side and probing the bottom. They also forage on land, especially in mud or on short grass.

Tricolored Herons are medium sized wading birds with slate blue feathers on most of their body except for a white chest and belly, and rust-colored neck with white stripe. They have long, yellowish colored legs and a long pointed yellow bill which turns blue during breeding season. Also known as the Louisiana Heron, they can be found in marshes, swamps, bayous, mudflats, lagoons and coastal ponds from Florida up the Atlantic coast to Maine, around the Gulf Coast to New Mexico and ranging south to northern South America and the West Indies.

The Tricolored Heron is an extremely slender bird, and moves gracefully about as it searches for fish, insects and frogs. Despite their relatively small size, they often forage in deep water with their legs completely underwater, giving the appearance that the bird is swimming.

Gatorland has a large number of Tricolored Herons that nest in the small trees and bushes along the walkways. Colonial nesters, they make their nests in colonies with other herons and egrets. The females breed once a year and have been known to lay up to seven blue-green eggs.

Easily distinguished from the Greater Egret by its much smaller size, black bill, and yellow feet, this small wading bird was also hunted almost to extinction for its plumage in the 1800’s. During breeding season, the Snowy Egret acquires long, lacy plumes just for courtship, which it raises and fans to spectacular effect. Courtship displays begin in January here at Gatorland, with nesting beginning in late February. Snowy Egrets are a colonial nester, making their nests amongst other wading birds such as egrets and herons.

Building their nests in trees and bushes throughout Gatorland’s Breeding Marsh, females will lay 3 - 5 greenish blue eggs that begin to hatch in roughly three to four weeks. The young leave the nest in 20 to 25 days and hop about on branches near the nest before departing. During March and April you can observe the parents teaching their young to fly by coaxing them to hop from branch to branch and eventually short flights between bushes.

Snowy Egrets subsist on fish, crabs, amphibians, and insects, and the occasional pieces of the hot dogs the alligators miss!

Frequently seen perched around the trees of the Breeding Marsh, or flying high over Gatorland’s main lake, the Osprey can easily be identified by its white chest and face, brown back and wings, and black eye stripe. Found on every continent except Antarctica, this large raptor feeds primarily on fish, and will hover over the water high above its prey before diving down and landing feet first. Grasping the fish tightly in its talons, the Osprey will fly to a perch or nest and proceed to eat its meal, usually starting at the head of the fish.

Osprey numbers declined dramatically in the 1950-1970s, primarily due to eggshell thinning and pesticide poisoning from DDT. After use of the pesticide was banned, Osprey numbers began to rebound, although they are still listed as threatened in some states. Ospreys are quite numerous in Florida, with some of the best viewing areas in the Indian River Lagoon. Ospreys readily build their nests on man made structures, such as channel markers, and telephone pole platforms designed specifically for their use.

The adult Black-crowned Night Heron is a short, stocky bird easily identified by its black colored crown and back, white torso, blue-grey wings, yellow legs, and piercing red eyes. During the breeding season, two long, thin, white plumes extend from the back of the head, and the legs turn color from yellow to pink. Young Night Herons are primarily brown and grey with white spotting on the wings and a mottled chest. Adult plumage is acquired during the third year.

Night Herons inhabit a variety of wetland habitats such as swamps, marshes, lakes, and rivers. Found throughout the United States and Southern Canada, Night Herons can be found as far south as Central America and the Caribbean. Here at Gatorland we have several Night Herons that stay with us all year-round, and can be spotted frequently during the later part of the day. As the name implies, Night Herons are very active during the evening hours, feeding when most of the other birds are asleep. Opportunistic feeders, their diet consists of a wide variety of items such as fish, lizards, frogs, rodents, carrion, and small birds.

The Common Moorhen is a small, duck-like marsh bird easily identified by its distinctive red and yellow bill with bright red frontal plate that extends up and onto its forehead. The Moorhen has a slate grey to black body with a brownish coloration to its back and wings, as well a white stripe on the upper flanks. The legs and feet are yellow, with the feet having elongated toes like a chicken, allowing the bird to easily walk across floating vegetation without sinking.

Early Florida pioneers referred to this bird as a Marsh Hen, or Swamp Chicken, no doubt due to the Moorhen’s chicken-like walk and feeding behaviors. Found in marshy wetland areas throughout much of North America, Central America, and into northern South America, the Common Moorhen feeds on a wide variety of food items such as vegetation, seeds, insects, larva, and other small invertebrates.

Moorhens make a cup shaped nest constructed of dead vegetation lined with grass and leaves, usually located in a low shrub or on the ground. Moorhens typically lay 6 – 10 eggs, and both parents will incubate the eggs which take 3 weeks to hatch.

The Little Blue Heron is a medium sized wading bird with a slate-blue body, purplish maroon head and neck, light blue bill tipped with black, and yellow legs with dark feet. Found throughout the southeastern United States and up the Atlantic Coast to New England, the Little Blue Herons range also extends down to both coasts of Mexico, parts of Central America and northern South America, as well as throughout the Caribbean region.

As with most wading birds, the Little Blue is a stealthy hunter, standing motionless in the shallow water until its dinner comes within range. Making its home in freshwater swamps, lagoons, coastal thickets and islands, the Little Blue Heron feeds primarily on small fish, crustaceans, reptiles, amphibians and insects.

At Gatorland, nesting begins in late February to early March, with the parents constructing a nest made of sticks, lined with leaves and twigs. The female lays four to five pale bluish-green eggs, one every other day. Both parents participate in incubation which lasts for 22 to 23 days. The Little Blue is the only Heron to have white chicks, they will not reach their slate-blue adult coloration for several years. Juveniles begin to fly at about four weeks of age. Contrary to popular belief, the Little Blue Heron can reach sexual maturity before reaching adult plumage, as the picture above shows.

The Green Heron, also referred to as the Little Green Heron, is the smallest of the herons found in North America. Roughly the size of a crow, the Green Heron is quite colorful with dark green cap, back, and wings, chestnut neck and chest, and yellow feet. Their range encompasses most of the United States down through Mexico and Central America, and into the West Indies and Panama.

Green Herons can frequently be found along lakes, ponds, marshes, and streams feeding on a wide variety of food such as small reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, crayfish, earthworms, and small mammals. Green Herons feed mostly in the early morning and evening hours, standing motionless with their head and neck extended, waiting for prey to come within range, although they will sometimes dive into the water to catch a fish.

A secretive and solitary bird, Green Herons were the first bird to nest in Gatorland’s Breeding Marsh when it was completed in 1991. Making their nests of loose twigs and sticks in bushes near a body of water, they lay three to six greenish eggs a year. Both sexes help incubate the eggs, which hatch after 20 days.

The Great Egret is a large, all white wading bird with long black legs and a thick tapered yellow bill. Found in wetland areas throughout much of the world, from southern Canada southward to Argentina, and across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, the Great Egret was threatened with extinction in the United States as plume hunters in the late 1800s reduced North American populations by more than 95 percent. Egret plumes were used within the fashion industry, primarily for women’s hats, and during peak demand an ounce of egret plumes was worth more than an ounce of gold. It was at this time the Audubon Society was formed to help protect the birds from the wholesale slaughter of the feather industry, eventually succeeding in getting legislation passed to protect the birds. The Great Egret has since made a dramatic comeback, becoming a symbol of the Audubon Society’s success in conservation efforts.

The Great Egret is the most common of the wading birds found at Gatorland, and can often be seen vying for the scraps the alligators miss. Breeding begins in January, with close to 100 pairs making their nests within the Alligator Breeding Marsh.