My memory of Sam, the marabou stork, my "out of town visitor"

January 11, 2026

It all started a few years ago when my husband sent me a fuzzy picture of a strange bird he had spotted on the property when he was making rounds one day. I had no idea what I was looking at the time, but thought I would enlist the assistance of a local birding community on Facebook. That was unpleasant to say the least. The amateur sleuths dissected my profile, pegged me as an attention seeking liar (my perception), and as an impossible sighting.

So as days went on, I witnessed the impressive stature of Sam, as he/she came to be known as. When my husband first seen him, he likened the bird to the cartoon Toucan Sam from commercials, so Sam he became. Sam wasn’t always easy to find on the property, but frequented certain areas where frogs and small critters were known to be in the pools of water, left from the ditch flooding in low lying areas of the property. He was skittish and didn’t seem to like the presence of people, but didn’t pay much attention to farm equipment. So my best chance of seeing Sam closer, was from the cab of the tractor or skid steer.  Sam seemed to pal around with young blue heron that frequented the same pools, though he preferred to stride away versus fly. When I say stride, imagine an over 3-4 foot bird with long legs.

As word got out, I offered a few “bird” people the opportunity to visit the property, to prove he existed and give them the opportunity to see for themselves the rare sight from the side by side we used to work on the property. They would meet me and I would drive them within 50 yards of the bird, and pointed him out when they had trouble recognizing the big oddity. Some would bring fancy cameras to get their own pictures, with some of the biggest telephoto lenses I had ever seen in person. Sam was not always cooperative, not seemingly comfortable with the attention he was receiving, but always able to be seen from a distance. That came to an abrupt halt when one person put the coordinates to the property on a website, which is private and not open to anyone trapesing across.

But I was approached by a local zoo person, asking for the opportunity to see Sam. There was concern for Sam surviving the winter and discussion of how he had come to be here. I am usually of the thought that nature provides the means in spite of what humans think is in their best interest, but was willing to assist in the plan to try to capture Sam and relocate him for the greater good.

As time went by, no zoo had reported a marabou stork missing from their compounds, so the thought process was he escaped from a private aviary somewhere, as he did have bands on his legs that weren’t able to be read from the photos. Marabou storks are also documented as pooing down their legs regularly, so no surprise there. A plan was made with the zoo personnel to build a netted catch pen, lure him in, and then capture. The best laid plans often fail, and Sam was an unwilling participant at best.

Weeks passed checking on Sam almost daily just to visualize him, note his patterns of behavior, and ensure he was still getting enough to eat since the weather was getting colder and his food sources were going into hibernation. Trail camera documented his movements and provided some candid pictures I couldn’t get in person. He began wading the edges of the lake, possibly for fish that might swim close enough. And as marabou storks are a carrion type bird, kin to the vulture, and he was supplied with deer hunter leftovers as well. The zoo persons provided some frozen fish their penguins didn’t like, to place in the netted catch pen to see if he would enter to eat. Though nice in theory, the local wildlife would also scavenged the area as well. We did have to cut a small hole in the net one day, to free an entrapped opossum who wound itself up. Sam did eat a few fish, but didn’t seem overly thrilled them or easily enticed inside the netted enclosure. He started traveling to areas of the property closer to people and the road. And one day, he just wasn’t found anymore. The question was if he had been caught by a coyote or other predator, or migrated further south. That big of a bird would have left feathers a plenty if a predator had nabbed him, so my vote was for migration. I watched along the roads, lanes, tree lines, and waters edges of nearby properties when passing by. I only had one possible sighting, along a railroad lane, but it was too brief an impression to be positive. Over a year has gone by and I often wonder where he ended up, or if he was observed by people again. With all the nature preserves in our area, who knows. But with his wing span of almost 6-7 feet, he could have flown anywhere he wanted.