WHAT LARGE WADING BIRD IS GORGEOUS BUT BIZARRE,ALWAYS STOPS A BIRDWALK BUT HARDLY MAKES A SOUND?
Neil Stalter
Mention “Roseate Spoonbill” to a Grand Habor neighbor, chances are you'll see a quiet smile spread over your friend's face. Their eyes will begin to show delight . . . almost like you have invoked the name of a celestial spirit.
Gorgeous from a distance and bizarre when viewed up-close, these birds are one-of-a-kind. Our birdwalks come to a halt when spoonbills make their silent appearance.
Just thinking about this brightly hued pink waterbird is fun. Watching a few spoonies circle overhead and land beside a nearby pond can take your breath away. Last spring, several Audubon members set local records when they counted a flock of over 25 of these majestic birds visiting our sanctuary.
The wading bird is easy to spot; it's our only large pink species. Its color derives, like the Flamingo's, from its diet – plenty of crustaceans and algae roots. The spoonbill sweeps its odd platypus-like beak through pond mud and silt to loosen prey. Aside from its pink core and wings, you can spot the adults' green neck during breeding season. The bird stands 30-36” tall and shows a wingspan reaching four feet.
Roseate Spoonbills were common before the 1860s, but they began to fall in numbers as hunters took them for their plumes. Those were used in ladies' hats and fancy fans. Today, they have regained their range that rings the Caribbean and extends to Mexico's Pacific coast and down South America's Atlantic shores. They stay year-round in Florida. Rare north of Carolina.
It won't surprise even casual birders to learn that spoonbills are related to herons, storks and closely to ibises. They roost in mangrove colonies, as Grand Harbor Audubon field trippers saw when visiting Corkscrew Swamp a few years ago. A group of Roseate Spoonbills is called a “bowl.”As is the case with most large wading birds, they are monogamous for a given season.
If you have heard a Roseate Spoonbill's call, count yourself among the very few. Given mostly within the colony as birds jostle for space and primacy in the pecking order, their sound is a low grunting croak. In flight, the bird moves through a cycle of short, swift wingbeats then goes into a glide: the beat goes chop-chop-chop-easy float.