The Status and Occurrence of Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) in British Columbia
by Rick Toochin and Jamie Fenneman
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Introduction and Distribution
The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) is widespread and often common throughout much of South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean (Coulter et al. 1999). It also occurs year-round in Florida and the surrounding areas of the southeastern U.S. (north to South Carolina, east to the Florida Panhandle) and is a regular migrant elsewhere along the U.S. Gulf coast (Coulter et al. 1999). It is an uncommon post-breeding visitor to southernmost California as well as north in the eastern United States, and rarely reaching eastern Canada (Dunn and Alderfer 2011). Populations in the southeastern United States have declined slightly from the early 1900s, although the magnitude of the decline has been debated (Coulter et al. 1999). The post-breeding population that visits southern California, however, has declined precipitously since the 1970s, when the species was considered common at the Salton Sea (Shuford and Gardali 2008). Similarly, although the species formerly occurred along the south coast of California throughout the Imperial Valley (including the Salton Sea), and along the Colorado River, virtually the entire post-breeding population now occurs only along the southern shores of the Salton Sea near the Mexican border (Shuford and Gardali 2008). As this western population is possibly the source of potential vagrants to the Pacific Northwest, these declines may influence the likelihood of future vagrants to British Columbia. The only other record in northwestern North America is of an immature bird that was collected in Boise County, Idaho in June 1910 (IBRC 2011). There are no records for Oregon, Washington State or Alaska (OFO 2012, Wahl et al. 2005, WBRC 2012, West 2008). The Wood Stork is an accidental vagrant to British Columbia with only one historical record (Campbell et al. 1990).
Occurrence and Documentation
Surely one of the most unexpected and remarkable rarities to occur in British Columbia, the Wood Stork is known in the province only from a single observation from Telegraph Creek, in the northwestern corner of the province, on September 15, 1970 (Campbell et al. 1990). The bird died shortly after its discovery, and the specimen was sent to the collections at the Royal British Columbia Museum (Campbell et al. 1990). Few additional details surrounding this record have been published, although Campbell et al. (1990) indicated that the local newspaper in Victoria covered the occurrence at the time, even publishing a photograph of the live bird.
