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Spoonbill

'\Spoonbills'

Roseate Spoonbill
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Ciconiiformes
Family:Threskiornithidae
Genera: Platelea, Ajaia
Species
Platelea leucorodia
Platelea minor
Platelea alba
Platelea regia
Platelea flavipes
Ajaia ajaja
Spoonbills are a group of large long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. Ibises are in the same family.

All have large flat spatulate bills, and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly-opened bill from side to side: the moment a small aquatic creatures touches the inside of the bill—an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish—it is snapped shut. Spoonbills generally prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. They need to feed for many hours each day.

Spoonbills are monogamous but, so far as is known, only for one season at a time. Most species nest in trees or reed-beds, often with ibises or herons. The male gathers nesting material—mostly sticks and reeds, sometimes taken from an old nest—the female weaves it into a large, shallow bowl or platform which varies in its shape and structural integrity according to species.

The female lays a clutch of about 3 smooth, oval white eggs and both parents incubate; chicks hatch one at a time rather than all together. The newly-hatched young are blind and cannot care for themselves immediately; both parents feed them by partial reguritation. Chicks bills are short and straight, and only gain the characteristic spoonbill shape as the young mature. Feeding continues for a few weeks longer after the family leaves the nest. The primary cause of brood failure appears not to be predation but starvation.

The spoonbill family is one of the families in the order Ciconiiformes, which also includes several other wading bird families:

The six species of spoonbill in two genera are distibuted over much of the world.


Yellow-billed Spoonbill.