This species breeds in the United States from southern North Carolina through the coastal plain of South Carolina, Georgia, and occasionally in Alabama, and throughout peninsular Florida. Outside of the United States, Wood Storks are found breeding from Mexico south to Argentina where suitable habitat is available: east of the Andes from Colombia to Argentina and eastern Bolivia; west of the Andes from Colombia through Ecuador.

The breeding range of Wood Storks in the U.S. has changed a lot during the last 40 years. Prior to the 1970’s, approximately 75% of the population nested south of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. The range shifted northward as the Everglades of south Florida degraded, so that over 50% of the population was breeding north of Lake Okeechobee and as far north as South Carolina by the mid-1980’s. First breeding records for Georgia were 1976, and 1981 in South Carolina.

Range map of Wood Storks (Mycteria americana) in North and Central
America. From: Coulter M.C., J. A. Rodgers, J. C. Ogden and F. C. Depkin
(1999). Wood Stork. In: The Birds of North America, No. 409
(A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). the Birds of North America, Inc, Philadephia, Pa.