Roseate Spoonbill Facts

Roseate Spoonbill Facts

Image source:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rrburke

1. The roseate spoonbill can be found along the southern coastal waters of the United States, extending southward through Central and South America.  They inhabit both fresh and saltwater wetlands - tidal pools, ponds, marshes, lagoons, swamps and rivers as well as coastal islands, wherever shallow, open, still or slow-flowing water occurs.

2. The roseate spoonbill is a large, wading bird with long legs and neck.  It is named for its pink plumage (feathers) and paddle-shaped bill. 

3. The bare skin of the adult’s head has a greenish tinge with a darker black band around the base of the skull.  The eyes and legs are red.  The feathers of the neck, chest and upper back are white.  The upper wing coverts (coverings) are red, the tail feathers are orange-pink, and the rest of the body and wing feathers are pale pink. The unique, pale grey bill is long, flattened and spoon-like in appearance.

4. Immature birds are paler in color and have feathered heads.

5. Roseate Spoonbill get their pink color from the food they consume, small crustaceans that have fed on algae. Often grunts when hunting for food.

6. Unlike most birds, roseate spoonbills are silent and often solitary when they feed. They swish their spoon-shaped bills back and forth in the water to find small invertebrates, fish and crustaceans. During breeding season, the male uses gifts of nesting material to attract the female. Once mated, the pair remains monogamous. Both male and female take turns sitting on the eggs and feeding the young.

7. Spoonbills eat shrimp, shrimp eat algae, and the algae make their own red and yellow pigments, called carotenoids. Some scientists believe that the pink coloration that roseate spoonbills acquire as they mature is due to their diet of carotenoid-rich organisms like shrimp. The more they eat, the pinker they get.

8. Flamingos are close relatives of the roseate spoonbill. They both have pink feathers, but the flamingos are much larger with a longer neck.

9. Ajaia ajaja feed alone or in small groups in the early morning and evening hours and are frequently seen in the company of other water and wading birds including ibises, storks, cormorants, herons and egrets.  Group feeding enables one or more birds to search for and warn of danger while the rest feed with heads down.  They are a shy, easily disturbed bird.

10. They hunt for food by touch instead of sight, a crucial adaptation for a bird that feeds in muddy or vegetation-clogged water. 

11. A roseate spoonbill will feed by sweeping its open bill from side to side in the water (known as “head-swinging”) creating mini-whirlpools that pull up small prey from the muddy bottom.  Sensitive touch receptors along the bill’s length detect vibrations and signal the bill to close quickly on prey swept inside the spoon. 

12. They fly with their necks and legs outstretched using long, slow wing beats.  

13. They are serially monogamous, keeping the same mate for an entire breeding season, but not for life.  Courtship displays include ritualized exchanges of nest material, dancing, and bill clapping.  Their mating season lasts from March through June.

14. Scientists believe that, like flamingos, the roseate spoonbill’s pink coloration is due to their diet of organisms containing carotene (an orange-yellow to red pigment) like shrimp. 

15. The roseate spoonbill is the only member in the genus Ajaia.  The AOU (2002) (American Ornithologists’ Union) has recommended merging Ajaia into Platalea, the genus for the five other species of spoonbills, and several classification systems show it that way. 

16. The roseate spoonbill is the only spoonbill species that lives in the Western Hemisphere.