Wood Storks and Their Friends – Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park and its attendant resort hotels is home to four different species of Storks, none of which are native to the state of Florida. These include White Storks that can be encountered on the Discovery Island Trail in the middle of the park near the Tree of Life, Abdim Storks living in an enclosure near the Tree of Life, Saddle Billed Storks which can be seen on the Kilimanjaro Safari, and Marabou Storks, the national bird of South Africa reside at the savanna at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

However, in addition to these captive birds from around the world, Disney World is also home to a species of wild stork native to Florida and they can be seen wading in the lakes and waterways around the vacation kingdom. These of course are Wood Storks. The Wood Stork is a large white wading bird native to the southeastern United States, islands in the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Once considered endangered in the United States, they are now listed as threatened having expanded their range north of Florida into Georgia along with South and North Carolina.

Wood Storks are large, standing between three and four feet tall with wingspans up to six feet. They are easily distinguished by their white plumage with dark feathers on their wings, long beaks, and bald almost vulture like looking heads. On the ground they appear ungainly but in flight they are graceful and magnificent.

At Walt Disney World, the best place to see Wood Storks is at Saratoga Springs Resort, particularly in the water and along the shorelines at the end of the resort near Disney Springs. They can also be seen wading along the shorelines of Bay Lake near the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness and in the water near the Crescent Lake Resorts.