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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 4:37 am and is filed under The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.