The Habitat of Storks

Stork nests can become very large.

The San Diego Zoo's website states that storks live on every continent with the exception of Antarctica and include 21 species. Only one species of these wading birds nests in the United States, the wood stork. Storks typically are close to water because they subsist on a diet composed mostly of fish and other aquatic creatures, although some catch and eat small mammals and reptiles with their long bills.

Geography

The wood stork is a yearlong resident in states such as Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. It nests in those states as well as in areas from Mexico to as far south as Argentina in South America. Wood storks also frequent the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after nesting in eastern states, and some make their way as far north as North Carolina. Some flocks from Mexico appear in parts of the Southwest and into southern portions of California.

Habitat

The habitat of the wood storks includes the coastlines and large rivers of the states in which they live. The birds form huge breeding colonies in mangrove swamps and cypress swamps. Their breeding season coincides with the dry season in states such as Florida. This allows the wood storks to capture more easily the fish they need to raise a family of chicks because the water gets lower and the fish are confined to a smaller space. The "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds" states that wood stocks can nest in colonies with as many as 10,000 pairs of adults.

Considerations

According to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park's website, storks are so large that the birds depend on thermal air currents to help them soar. This means that because these air currents do not usually occur over expansive bodies of water, storks avoid such places and concentrate their flying over land. Stork species in Europe, Asia and Africa also spend the winter months where food is abundant, often looking for insects such as locusts and grasshoppers.

Nests

As wood storks do, other storks either build their nests alone or breed in large colonies. Those that are solitary types include the black-necked storks and the Jabirus storks. These birds select a mate and then a nesting site, with the same pair often returning to the same site for many years. The colony-nesting storks, including the yellow-billed storks and the marabou storks, often live with other wetland species, such as herons and egrets. Storks usually build their nests in trees, but some choose a hollow in the side of a cliff or even compose a nest on the ground. Many kinds of storks utilize the same nest if they find it in good shape, adding onto it until it gets quite large.

Legend

The legend that storks brought babies to expecting parents down chimneys traces back to olden times and involves the European white stork. In many instances, these birds constructed their nests on roofs of homes and even on chimneys. The breeding season for these birds--spring--was also a time when many people were expecting a baby, and the stork took on the aura of a bird that embodied fertility and good fortune.

References

• Audubon: Wood Stork
• San Diego Zoo: Birds--Stork
• Smithsonian National Zoological Pak: European White Stork
• "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds;" John Bull and John Farrand Jr.; 2008