When longtime birder Patrick O’Driscoll saw a massive tropical bird slowly flying over Denver’s City Park last weekend, he almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

Could it be a sandhill crane? No, that didn’t fit. It wasn’t a great blue heron, either.

“I was dumbfounded that it was a wood stork , which is not supposed to be around here,” O’Driscoll said.

Most often found in Florida and Mexico, a wood stork was last recorded in Colorado 91 years ago, according to records from Colorado Field Ornithologists .

Wood storks are North America’s only native stork and usually like living in southern swamps, according to the National Audubon Society . They’re mostly white with a naked, gray head and heavy bill, and typically grow to a little over 3 feet with a wing span of 5 feet or more.

O’Dr

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