Америка құсы – ағаш тұтқасы

Wading bird found in the Americas
the African bird sometimes called the wood stork

The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", although it is not an ibis. It is found in subtropical and tropical habitats in the Americas, including the Caribbean. In South America, it is resident, but in North America, it may disperse as far as Florida. Originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, this stork likely evolved in tropical regions. 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. The juvenile differs from the adult, with the former having a feathered head and a yellow bill, compared to the black adult bill. There is very little sexual dimorphism. The wood stork's habitat can vary, but it must have a tropical or subtropical climate with fluctuating water levels. The nest is found in trees, especially mangroves and those of the genus Taxodium, usually surrounded by water or over water. The wood stork nests colonially. The nest itself is made from sticks and greenery. During the breeding season, which is initiated when the water levels decline and can occur anytime between November and August, a single clutch of three to five eggs is laid. These are incubated for around 30 days, and the chicks hatch underdeveloped, or altricial, requiring support from their parents. They fledge 60 to 65 days after hatching, although only about 31% of nests fledge a chick in any given year, with most chicks dying during their first two weeks, despite being watched by an adult during that time. The chicks are fed fish of increasing size as they age. The diet of the adult changes throughout the year. During the dry season, fish and insects are eaten, compared to the addition of frogs and crabs during the wet season. Because it forages by touch, it needs shallow water to effectively catch food. This is also the reason why the wood stork breeds when water levels start to fall. Globally, the wood stork is considered to be of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is due to its large range. In the United States, on the other hand, it is considered to be threatened. Predators of the wood stork include raccoons (which predate on chicks), crested caracaras, which prey on eggs, and other birds of prey, which feed on eggs and chicks. Hunting and egg collecting by humans has been implicated as a factor in the decline of South American wood storks. Humans also cause nest failures through ecotourism, although observation through binoculars about away does not have a large effect on nesting success. Habitat alteration has caused the wood stork to decline, with levee and drainage systems in the Everglades causing a shift in the timing of breeding and thus a decrease in breeding success.

The wood stork was first formally given its binomial name Mycteria americana by Linnaeus in 1758. Linnaeus based his name on a misplaced account and illustration in Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) of the jabiru guacu. Linnaeus also described Tantalus loculator, which was proven to also apply to the jabiru guacu, after M. americana based on a 1731 illustration of the wood stork by Mark Catesby under the name of wood pelican. Since these binomials referred to the same species, M. americana and T. loculator are synonymous but M. americana takes priority as it occurs before T. loculator. The accepted genus name Mycteria derives from the Greek μυκτήρ : myktēr, meaning snout or trunk, and the species name americana references the distribution of this stork. Of the extant members of the genus Mycteria, this bird is basal to the clade yellow billed stork, which is itself basal to the milky stork and the painted stork. This phylogeny is based on a 1996 study that sequenced the B chromosome and then utilized DNA–DNA hybridization to find the relations between the storks. Likely because of its decurved bill, the wood stork has formerly been called the "wood ibis", although it is not an ibis. It also has been given the name of the "American wood stork", because it is found in the Americas.

During the breeding season, the wood stork commonly defecates over the edge of its nest, while the chicks usually defecate inside. In hot weather, breeding adults will also shade their chicks with their wings. especially during dry periods where the water beneath nesting trees dries up. Other species of Haemoproteus also infect wood storks in Costa Rica, in addition to Syncuaria mycteriae, a nematode found in the gizzard of the wood stork.

Globally, the wood stork is considered least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to its large range. Similarly, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, its decline seems to have been reversed: after an absence between the late 1960s and the mid 1990s, the species is now again regularly encountered there, in particular in the Tubarão River region. In the Everglades, levee and drainage systems have caused the timing of water fluctuations to change, thus shifting the timing of nesting and consequently a decrease in population.