The Wood Stork “… is the only stork breeding in the United States and was placed on the Federal Endangered Species list in 1984. The species was downlisted from endangered to threatened in June 2014, reflecting a successful conservation and recovery effort spanning three decades.” (many more details here: National Park Service)
The previously endangered Wood Storks have definitely found a new breeding ground here in southern Palm Beach County. Up till about 5 years ago, Wood Storks constituted only a small proportion of birds in this popular wetlands preserve. Soon they started taking over!!
In recent years, great numbers of these charming couples have been staking out their claims everywhere on most of the large tree islands. This month, the Wood Storks are busy flying off to collect building materials to bring back to their mates as they construct their large bulky nests (All About Birds).
This lone Great Blue Heron and Anhinga might just be reminiscing about the good old days when they and their friends had this nesting island to themselves . . . .
Apologies for being so delinquent in keeping up with reading and responding to my fellow bloggers posts lately! Life got overly busy there for awhile 🤗
Birder's Journey 
Wood Storks here have several very private rookeries. Successful breeding every year, and like you they seem to be everywhere suddenly 👍
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Yes, they’re doing very well here, too. And their numbers just keep growing every year.
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Harris Neck WMA in Georgia built up a few islands several years ago. Within the first year a few hundred storks showed up. Last year over 800 were in the new rookery. 😃😃
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Wow!!! Amazing!
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Wow! Tremendous!
Yishai Rasowsky (972) 54-848-2245 (972) 54-751-6040 *Kollel *| Classes * | *Blog | GitHub | Linkedin
On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 2:59 PM Birder’s Journey wrote:
> Birder’s Journey posted: ” The Wood Stork “… is the only stork breeding > in the United States and was placed on the Federal Endangered Species list > in 1984. The species was downlisted from endangered to threatened in June > 2014, reflecting a successful conservation and recover” >
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They are indeed, Yishai! Tremendous in size as well as in their overall appearance.
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The map at the Cornell site you linked to shows that wood storks live along the Texas coast as well.
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Yes! Thankfully, though they are the only storks in North America, their presence has really grown in the last decade or so. More from the US Fish & Wildlife Service: https://www.fws.gov/northflorida/woodstorks/wood-storks.htm
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A truly beautiful, unique-looking bird!
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Yes, so unique-looking!
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Always good to learn of species recoveries. I watched a short film recently of endangered storks in India. Education was key, and things look optimistic for them.
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Thanks, Eliza, for sharing this good-news story about another bird species!
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Lovely to see Woodstalks nesting together BJ, these birds similar to Ibis, Egrets and Spoonbills appear to find safety and community nesting together. Good to see them breeding well, and that they have their own space away from humans to do so. Some birds such as our Spoonbills will abandon their nests altogether if they see a human approach.
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So true about the community building we see on these nesting tree islands, AB. (Except, of course, that the Woodstorks are clearly the dominant species when it comes to selecting their favorite spots!) and interestingly, all of the birds that nest and live in our local wetlands are so used to humans, that it feels as if you could reach out and touch some of them.
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What a cool rookery and sighting!
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Thanks, Deborah. Yes this is a Wetlands preserve that was intentionally constructed with many tree islands which the birds use for rookeries. The remarkable part is that the tree islands are within an arm’s reach of the boardwalk!
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These big birds really have character!
Wonderful series of photographs! It has been heartening to watch their return from the dire situation they face not that long ago.
Thank you for sharing!
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It is really a remarkable “come back” story, isn’t it, Wally? It amazes me every year how many of them flock to our area to breed.
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I just noticed how prescient your post’s title is, given what’s happening in eastern Europe.
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Whoa….! yes, 😳
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By the way, I just learned from my wife this afternoon that Zelensky is Jewish.
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Yes! He’s pretty amazing. What a career – from comedian to president to military leader.
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It certainly is the busy season! I especially like the sole heron amongst the wood storks 😊
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It sure is, Belinda. Everyone’s getting ready. I like that lone heron, too. 😌
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Even if the heron and anhinga have some reservations, I’m so glad to learn that the wood storks are doing well, at least in your corner of the country.
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I agree with you Tanja. The Wood Storks were really in trouble there for a while.
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