Roseate Spoonbill
Place to admire: Tropical Paradise
Scientific name: Platalea ajaja
IUCN-status: Least concern
Habitat
In the wild, the Roseate Spoonbill lives in the Caribbean, the edges of Central America and in South America. Its habitat consists of inland wetlands with fens, swamps, pant forests, and inland wetlands with permanent freshwater lakes.
Appearance
The Roseate Spoonbill is a large wading bird with long legs. This bird has a long neck and a long and spatulate beak. The plumage and legs contain a pink color. The intensity of the color depends on age and location. The neck and breast turn white.
The Roseate Spoonbill has a pale green and bald head. During the breeding season, this color changes to dull gold. In addition, bright red shoulders become visible during the breeding season.
Diet
The Roseate Spoonbill is an omnivore. This means that this bird species eats both plant and animal material.
The animal diet consists of small Fish, Crustaceans, Water beetles, Mollusks, Snails and other Insects. The Roseate Spoonbill also eats plant materials such as fibers and roots of the Cyperaceae.
Social behavior
The Roseate Spoonbill lives in small flocks. During the breeding season, this bird species lives colonially. The colony consists of only Pink Spoonbills or in combination with other bird species such as the Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber), Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis).
This bird species adopts a serial monogamous mating system. This means that a pair lives monogamous for 1 breeding season.
Natural behavior
The Roseate Spoonbill has 2 movement behaviors peculiar to the Roseate Spoonbill.
During “Upflight,” the breeding colony of Roseate Spoonbills takes off en masse, with the birds flying in circles and then landing back down. Prior to upflight, the birds assume an upright posture. The “Upflight” the birds possibly perform as an alarm response to predators.
“Sky-Gazing” the birds perform in response to a Spoonbill flying overhead. Outside the breeding season, this display occurs in immature and adult birds. In the breeding season, this display occurs more often in adults before pair formation, than after the pairs are formed. In “Sky-Gazing,” the standing birds in the colony or swarm fully extend their necks and point their beaks toward the sky for several seconds. No sounds are produced during this display.
The Greater Flamingos, Ibises and Spoonbills at Mondo Verde
Greater flamingos, Ibises and Spoonbills are all known as colony breeders. Because of this, the natural behavior of these 3 species is at its best when they come together in a colony.
In Tropical Paradise (and throughout the rest of the park), you will see several (constructed) ponds and lakes. With these different levels of water, Mondo Verde stimulates natural behavior in the animals.