The Story
I made this photo of a Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) at Hacienda El Escobal in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia. It is the only stork that breeds in North America. Its legs and feet are dark, and the toes turn pink in the breeding season. Fledged young look like adults but have a feathered head and a yellow bill. Males average about 2.7 kilograms. Hacienda El Escobal is part of the Picaleña lagoon complex, and by eBird’s December 2021 data 309 bird species had been reported there. Cortolima lists El Escobal, on the Meseta de Ibagué, among the city’s 13 priority birding routes.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. IUCN lists the Wood Stork as Least Concern.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) belongs to the family Ciconiidae (Storks) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025). Source: IUCN Red List
