Are wood storks really storks?
Yes, although the wood stork we are familiar with here in Florida looks nothing like the European white stork most people think about when they hear the name stork, the wood stork is a true stork. It is one of only 17 species of storks in the family Ciconiidae that are generally distributed throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world. Storks, herons, ibises, and New World vultures are placed in the avian order Ciconiiformes. Recent DNA analysis suggests storks and New World vultures are more closely related to one another than storks are related to ibises and herons.
