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Why do wood storks need old bald-cypress?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 10, 2004

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The bald-cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) L. Richard) is a unique conifer; the tree sheds its feathery needles in the autumn. Natural stands of bald-cypress grow on saturated to inundated soils—flood plains, river banks, broad wet expanses called cypress savannas and in peculiar depressions called cypress domes.

Bald Cypress Swamp Near Fort Myers, Florida, USA Photographic Print
Fraser Hall Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

For the first two hundred years, a bald-cypress grows with a strong central leader. When 40 to 45 meters (130 to 150 feet) tall, the leader ceases to grow, the lower branches are lost and the top branches expand. The crown becomes a rounded platform.

Squirrels, wood ducks, turkeys, evening grosbeaks, and many other animals feed on bald-cypress seeds which the animals can glean from younger trees. But the old trees with their platform crowns are nesting sites for bald eagles, ospreys, and wood storks, three species that in the past forty years have teetered on the brink of extinction. Bald eagles and ospreys adapted to man-made structures and nest in many situations, but the wood stork uses bald-cypress. (The Birder's Handbook, Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye, Simon and Schuster, 1988)

Both the wood stork (Mycteria americana Linnaeus) and the bald-cypress depend on distinct wet and dry season wetlands. The wood stork feeds in shallow often turbid water. Holding its bill open, the stork moves its head back and forth as it wades through the water. When a fish touches the stork's bill, it snaps shut. The stork's tacto-location reflex is considered the fastest reflex known in vertebrates, it closes in 25 one-thousandths of a second. ("Wood Stork
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Trio of Wood Storks, Mycteria americana, Fly Thorugh a Blue Sky
Steve Winter Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

", Endangered and Threatened Species of the Southeastern United States, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1996)

Storks breed during of the dry season. Nesting in large colonies, each pair of wood storks needs over 400 pounds of fish to support themselves and their hatchlings. The storks depend on the shrinking pools of water to concentrate the fish into easily caught situations. But the bald-cypress also needs the lowering water levels. Its seeds will not germinate underwater, but must lay on the surface of wet muddy soils.

Plant of the Week 03/08/2004

Bald-cypress (Taxodium distichum)
The beautiful bald-cypresses are losing ground for a number of reasons. Changes in the hydrology--draining swamps, diverting runoff, and diking rivers--prevents the natural rise and fall of water levels necessary for the germination of cypress seed. Nutria, a rodent introduced from South America, relish cypress seedlings. And the horticultural market demands cypress mulch. Natural stands of the trees are cut, chipped, bagged, and shipped before any large size is attained. Plant of the Week 03/08/2004

The wood stork is a remarkable bird often traveling 80 or more miles to feed by climbing thermals, columns of rising air. An endangered species, wood storks once nested in swamps throughout the southeastern U.S. Breeding is now restricted to only South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The South Carolina DNR has posted information about the wood stork. To learn more about this fascinating bird, click on the link:

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/Woodstork.pdf

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, has a great photograph of a wood stork balancing on thin branch over a nest of juvenile birds. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/bwoodstk.htm

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image.

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