Wood Storks

These 3-foot-tall birds flock to forested wetland ponds, swamps and marshes. They walk slowly through the wetland with their bills in the water to feel for prey. When fish or other aquatic species come along they can snap their bill shut in as little as 25 milliseconds and swallow the prey whole. Wood storks live in flocks called rookeries and nest in trees above the water. A federally threatened species, each breeding pair of wood storks requires about 440 pounds of fish per breeding season! When a rookery is located in a Rayonier forest, it is protected in a buffer zone.