Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS

THE STORKS (Family Ciconiidd)

The American Wood Ibis

 (T. loculator) is a curious bird in many respects. It is widely distributed over tropical and warm-temperate America, extending north regularly to the Gulf States, lower Mississippi Valley, lower Colorado Valley, etc., and casually or in some instances regularly to New York, Illinois, Utah, and California.

It is from thirty-five to forty-five inches in length and white in color, with the quills, secondaries, and tail glossy greenish black with purple and bronze reflections. In the breeding season the under wing-coverts are rosy pink. The bare portions of the head and neck are livid bluish; the bill yellowish; the legs blue, becoming blackish on the toes.

Its habits have been variously described, some regarding it as a solitary bird, while others have found it usually in small parties. Hudson, who saw it in Argentina, says: “On the pampas it is not uncommon in summer and autumn, and goes in flocks of a dozen or twenty. The birds are usually seen standing motionless in groups or scattered about in spiritless attitudes, apparently dozing away the time.”

It frequents both fresh and salt waters, feeding largely upon fishes, which, according to Audubon, it catches by dancing around in the water to render it muddy, then killing all that come to the surface. It also feeds on frogs, crabs, snakes, turtles, young alligators, young birds, etc.

The nest, a rude platform of sticks, is placed in trees often of great height. In the shallow depression two or three white eggs are laid, which are about two and one half by two inches. The nesting site is used for many years, the birds refusing to leave even under great persecution.

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