Seems that no one told the Wood Storks near Clyde Butcher's Cypress Gallery that they are endangered. Dozens came to take advantage of the beautiful cypress trees that surround the gallery and which apparently make great nesting material.
The North American wood stork nests mostly in cypress swamps.
The population of the southeastern United States was over 150,000 at one time, but by 1900 it was probably not much over 10,000.
Destruction of habitat in southern Florida has led to a further decline and our only native stork is now considered endangered in its US habitat.
Both parents build a nest, with the male bringing the nesting material and the female carefully arranging it in the nest.
They later take turns feeding and guarding the young who are sometimes attacked by unmated storks wandering throughout the colony.
The nests look flimsy as they are build precariously at the end of branches in tall trees, sometimes 80 feet up in the air.
Wood storks generally do not start to breed until they are 4 years old and then do so once a year.
They lay three eggs on average, but only one or two survive to fly out of the nest. They are independent of their parents at 10-12 weeks of age, at which point they leave the colony and wander alone until they are ready to breed at about age 3 or 4.
There is no evidence that they deliver babies.
