spoonbill

spoonbill, any member of six species of long-legged wading birds that constitute the subfamily Plataleinae of the family Threskiornithidae (order Ciconiiformes), which also includes the ibises. Spoonbills are found in estuaries, saltwater bayous, and lakes. They feed by sweeping the long bill from side to side in the mud or shallow water and thereby catching mostly small fishes and crustaceans. When flying, spoonbills extend the neck and legs and flap the wings steadily. They breed in colonies, frequently with ibises and herons, building a large nest of sticks in a low bush or tree and laying three to five white eggs, blotched with reddish brown.

Spoonbills range in length from about 60 to 80 cm (24 to 32 inches). The head is partly or entirely bare. In most species the plumage is white, sometimes with a rosy tinge, but the roseate spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja), of North and South America, about 80 cm long, is deep pink with a white neck and upper back. It ranges from the Gulf Coast of Texas and the West Indies to Argentina and Chile. In some places it has been exterminated by plume hunters.

The European spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is a crested white bird about 60 cm long with cinnamon buff on the foreneck. It breeds in marshes of central and southern Europe and Asia, south to Egypt, India, and Taiwan. Others are the African spoonbill (P. alba); the lesser spoonbill (P. minor) of eastern Asia; and two Australian species, the royal, or black-billed, spoonbill (P. regia), and the yellow-billed, or yellow-legged, spoonbill (P. flavipes).