Finding Florida's Stork Relatives in the Spring

Large Endemic Residents With Spotty Distributions

Feb 20, 2009 Albert Burchsted

Limpkins, cranes, ibises, spoonbills, storks, and flamingos have specific habitat and food needs and may be difficult to locate. A successful search is its own reward.

Some of the most colorful and unusual wading birds in the United States are found in widely scattered habitats. Except for the white ibis, which is widely distributed throughout Florida, these birds are primarily found in a few habitats that satisfy their particular needs.

Storks and Their Relatives

Storks and their relatives are large birds that fly with their heads sticking out in front and their legs trailing behind them, and both extensions droop somewhat during flight. Included in this group are the ibises, spoonbills, limpkins, cranes, and storks – most of which use separate habitats and have different food preferences from the others. All have unwebbed feet at the end of long legs as do herons. The herons and egrets, although related to this group, normally pull their necks in while flying and hold their legs more or less horizontal in flight.

Ibises - Medium sized birds with bald, colored patches around their eyes and face; and long, downcurved bills up to four times longer than the head. They feed on crustaceans, insects, and worms in estuaries, marshes, and moist fields. Their body coloration varies between species, but all have black wingtips. There are three species in Florida: the white ibis (Eudocimus albus), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), and scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber).

Spoonbills – Medium sized birds with bald, colored patches around their eyes and face; and long, bills with a flattened, spatulate tip. They feed on crustaceans that they sieve from the muds of both salt and freshwater habitats. The roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) is the only one in Florida.

Limpkins – Medium sized birds with faces feathered to the bill. Their bills resemble those of ibises, but the tip is curved to the left. They feed primarily on apple snails of the genus Pomacea that they gather from the waters of cypress stands. The limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is the only member of its genus.

Cranes – Large birds up to five feet tall. Crane faces have bald, colored patches on the face, with bills that are heavier than the previous group of species, and only slightly longer than their heads. They feed primarily on insects, snakes, and lizards. The sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) is presently the only one in Florida, but the whooping crane (Grus americana) is known there from Pleistocene fossils.

Storks – The only true stork living in Florida is the tree stork (Mycteria americana). Although its head and much of its neck are bald with blackish pigmentation, its plumage is white with black along the trailing edges and tips of the wings and edges of the tail. This bird has the heaviest bill of this group and it is about three times longer than the bird's head.

Flamingos – Although rarely seen in this part of Florida, the unmistakable American flamingo (Phoenicopterus rubra) is sometimes found in the western Everglades.

Habitats in Which Storks and Relatives are Found

White and glossy ibises can be found in most habitats in Florida from seashores to wet praries and grassy lawns. The scarlet ibis is accidental in southern Florida, but some escapees from zoos may intermingle with the other species.

Spoonbills are restricted to wetlands where the birds feed on organisms living in the muds along the shores and in shallow water. Spoonbills increase in numbers south of Tampa and may be found in their largest numbers near Everglades City.

The limpkin almost exclusively restricts itself to the shallow edges of waterways in cypress swamps.

Cranes are found in wet praries where they forage in short grasses and along pond edges.

Wood storks feed on high concentrations of small fish in shallow bodies of water. Thus their usable habitat is restricted to ponds and lakes that are drying up and in wet years often cannot obtain enough food to raise their young and the young starve to death.

Flamingos forage in the waters of and nest on the shores of shallow bodies of freshwater where they can do so with little disturbance.

Hot Spots for Florida Storks and Relatives

Ibis can be found in almost all habitats frequented by herons and egrets. Thus, they are found in Fort Desoto County Park (Pinellas County), Lovers Key (Bonita Beach), Clam Pass (Naples), Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge (Sanibel Island), Briggs Wildlife Refuge, Marco Island, and Everglades City, Lettuce Lake Park (Tampa), Myakka River and Manatee River state parks (east of I-75), and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Glossy ibis tend to forage in slightly denser grassy vegetation than white ibis.

Spoonbills can regularly be found in all of the above except Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, the Myakka River and Manatee River state parks, and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Limpkins are almost a sure bet in Lettuce Lake Park, Myakka and Manatee River state parks, and Corkscrew Swamp.

Sandhill cranes frequent many wet meadows along state road 17 between Interstate 4 and Charlotte Harbor. They may also be seen at the Southwest Florida Airport in Fort Myers, Myakka and Manatee River parks, and Corkscrew Swamp.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has one of the largest wood stork breeding populations in the world and this species can best be seen from the boardwalk in this preserve. They are also sporadically seen across Florida from the west coast to the east coast and from the Everglades in the south into Georgia in the north.

The only hot spot for flamingos in Southwerstern Florida is near the town of Flamingo at the bottom of Everglades National Park. They may be found sporadically north of that, but not with predictability.

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