CreatureData

Wood stork

Mycteria americana Linnaeus, 1758

LCLeast Concernbirds

The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a species in the family Ciconiidae, order Ciconiiformes. Recorded adults weigh 2.42 kg to 2.7 kg and live up to 21.8 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Wood stork (Mycteria americana)
Photo: Googie man ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the wood stork

Weight
2.42 kg – 2.7 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
1.5 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
21.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
27 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
30 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
3.02src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
4 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the wood stork?

WOOD STORK · WINGSPAN 1.5 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 1.5 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the wood stork is close to the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the wood stork live?

Not recorded

What is the wood stork?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks). Originally described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, this stork is native to the subtropics and tropics of the Americas, where it persists in habitats with fluctuating water levels. It is the only stork species that breeds in North America. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and dark grey in colour. The plumage is mostly white, with the exception of the tail and some of the wing feathers, which are black with a greenish-purplish sheen.

Globally, the wood stork is considered to be of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the United States, the wood stork was previously classified as endangered due to loss of suitable feeding habitat in the Florida Everglades, its historical population stronghold in the country. The species has been subsequently downlisted to threatened after northward range expansion and increased population size.

From the Wikipedia article “Wood stork” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wood_stork&oldid=1384867667), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

What does the wood stork sound like?

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Is the wood stork endangered?

The wood stork is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the wood stork classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCiconiiformes
  5. familyCiconiidae
  6. genusMycteria
  7. SpeciesMycteria americana Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms Ciconia americana, Tantalus loculator

Other names and names in other languages (65)
  • American wood ibisEnglish
  • FlintheadEnglish
  • Old FlintheadEnglish
  • Wood ibisEnglish
  • لقلق خشبيArabic
  • لقلق الغياضArabic
  • tántalu americanuAsturian
  • Горски щъркелBulgarian
  • হলদেঠুঁটি মানিকজোড়Bangla
  • Tantal AmerikaBreton
  • tàntal americàCatalan
  • американ чарланӗChuvash
  • nesyt americkýCzech
  • ciconia'r coedWelsh
  • Amerikansk SkovstorkDanish
  • WaldstorchGerman
  • amerika cikonioEsperanto
  • Amerika mikterioEsperanto
  • TuyuyúSpanish
  • Cabeza de huesoSpanish
  • CigueñaSpanish
  • Cigüeña americanaSpanish
  • Cigüeña de cabeza peladaSpanish
  • CigüeñónSpanish
  • Cocó Cigueña AmericanaSpanish
  • CoyongoSpanish
  • GabánSpanish
  • tántaloSpanish
  • Tántalo americanoSpanish
  • muda-toonekurgEstonian
  • Mycteria americanaBasque
  • amerikaniibishaikaraFinnish
  • Tantale d'AmériqueFrench
  • Tantale d’AmériqueFrench
  • Storc coilleIrish
  • Tujuju kangyGuarani
  • Tantal rak bwaHaitian Creole
  • חסידן ורודHebrew
  • חסידת עציםHebrew
  • gologlava rodaCroatian
  • erdei gólyaHungarian
  • Cicogna americanaItalian
  • アメリカトキコウJapanese
  • Amerikinis žabirasLithuanian
  • amerikinis gandrėnasLithuanian
  • meža stārķisLatvian
  • kaalkopooievaarDutch
  • AmerikastorkNorwegian
  • Cigueña AmerikanaPapiamento
  • Garsa Kabes ChinoPapiamento
  • dławigad amerykańskiPolish
  • JaburuPortuguese
  • cabeça-secaPortuguese
  • cegonha-americanaPortuguese
  • Jaburu-molequePortuguese
  • Американский клювачRussian
  • myktéria holokrkáSlovak
  • Američka šumska rodaSerbian
  • amerikansk ibisstorkSwedish
  • Orman leyleğiTurkish
  • Kara Boyunlu Orman LeyleğiTurkish
  • міктеріяUkrainian
  • 林鸛Chinese
  • 黑头鹮鹳Chinese
  • 黑頭䴉鸛Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the wood stork

Other species in the same genus Mycteria.

CompareWood stork vs Yellow-billed storkWood stork vs Painted storkWood stork vs Milky storkWood stork vs Wetmore's stork

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the wood stork?

An adult wood stork weighs 2.42 kg – 2.7 kg and has a wingspan of 1.5 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the wood stork endangered?

The wood stork is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the wood stork live?

The wood stork has a recorded lifespan of 21.8 years.

What kind of animal is the wood stork?

The wood stork (Mycteria americana) belongs to the family Ciconiidae in the order Ciconiiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Wood stork (Mycteria americana). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-stork

MLA

“Wood stork (Mycteria americana).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-stork.

BibTeX
@misc{wood_stork_2026,
  title = {Wood stork (Mycteria americana)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/wood-stork},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}