Spoonbill - description, habitat, interesting facts

This large bird is often mistaken for a stork or heron. It belongs to the family of birds from the order Ciconiiformes and enters the subfamily of the spoonbill. It will be about the common spoonbill. Her body reaches a meter length, weight is from one to two kilograms, and the wingspan is from 1.15 to 1.35 m. In most cases, her thick, dense plumage is snow-white, and the surfaces of her beak and legs are black. During the mating season, long tufts puff out on the heads of males, and a red speck flaunts on the neck.

Habitat

Spoonbills living in Europe and Asia are migratory, and those that nest in North Africa, New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea are not. It is noteworthy that European birds fly to Africa for the winter, and Asian birds fly to China or India. Birds prefer to live near shallow, silty ponds, near small fresh or salt ponds. There is enough food available for them:

• crustaceans;
• frogs;
• fry;
• Worms
• various water plants;
• small fish;
• midges;
• various insects and their larvae.

They usually huddle in reeds, coastal shrubs or directly on trees.

Features and reproduction of birds

Usually these birds create small flocks or even join flocks of other birds, for example, herons. The similarity of the spoonbill with the stork is explained by the fact that in flight it stretches its long neck forward just like him. In addition, it has long and thin legs with membranes, characteristic of all marsh birds.

The beak of the spoonbill is thin and long, but expanding and as if flattened at the end, with a characteristic orange spot at the very tip. The tail is almost invisible, because it is very short and wedge-shaped. External sexual differences between a female and a male do not exist.

It is worth saying a few words about plumage. Despite the fact that most individuals wear white feathers, there are six species of spoonbills among those that are painted differently. The pink spoonbill has a chic feather of bright pink color, painted in gray tones on the head and neck. This coloring is typical for birds that eat a large number of carotenoids. The bird lives in America, and for the winter goes to Chile or Argentina.

In addition to pink, you can distinguish a red-brown spoonbill loaf. Her feather is mostly black with transitions in red-brown tones on the neck and abdomen. The wings have a greenish and purple tint. This bird weighs only 500 grams.

Usually spoonbills begin to hunt in the evening, when it gets noticeably dark. Having got out in shallow water, they lower half-opened beaks into the water and begin to “mow” fish or insects. They drive their beaks back and forth, as if mowing something in the water. As soon as a small fish swims under the beak, the bird instantly closes it, holding its prey tightly. Therefore, Aborigines are often called spoonbills "mowers." If there is no movement of water in a rivulet or pond, then the birds hunt alone. In rivers, even with a weak flow of water, they catch prey in a whole flock, lining up in line and moving towards the current one after another.

April and July are a fertile time for courtship games. They are attended by birds over three years old. Males show off crests in front of the females and clean their feathers in their halves. Those, in turn, reciprocate. In addition to reeds, where reed nests are built right on the ground, birds can also build them on floating snag rafts from the same reeds or branches. They are also able to occupy the nests of the copepods. These include:

• pink and curly pelican;
• cormorant.

In bird colonies, you can count from 6 to 160 individuals. Sometimes they adjoin flocks of other birds.In the mating season, spoonbills are very aggressive and actively protect their offspring and nests for the slightest reason. The rest of the time, they are quite peaceful and calm.

Usually the female lays two to five to six eggs. Both partners take part in incubation. The whole process takes up to three to four weeks. Chicks appear in white fluff and with soft beaks. For a while, their parents feed them in turn. Moreover, the chicks get food directly from their esophagus. When the kids are four weeks old, they will be ready for life near the nest, because just cease to fit in it. They will patiently wait for their parents nearby while they hunt. By 49 days, the chicks begin to become winged. By this time, they will fully fledge, and their beaks will become strong and similar to their parents. Upon reaching two months, the chicks will already grow so much that they can hunt themselves.

Interesting Facts

1. Thanks to the ascending air masses, birds can migrate long distances, hovering above the ground on their large wings. During such flights, the birds fly one after another, forming in the sky a kind of wedge or Latin letter “V”.
2. Spoonbills look very similar to herons or storks. With the latter they have not only an external resemblance, but also the same paw print on the sand. The only minor difference is that a deeper hole remains from the back finger of the spoonbill than from the stork finger.
3. There are many sensitive receptors on the beak of a bird, with the help of which it senses the slightest movement of prey inside it. As soon as the brain receives a signal of such movement, the bird immediately closes its beak and swallows the prey.
4. Due to the extinction and pollution of bird habitats, its numbers are steadily decreasing. Today it is listed in the Red Book.
5. So, her image can be found on a commemorative coin of Kazakhstan, which is included in the series “Red Book of Kazakhstan”. Spoonbill can also be found on a postage stamp of Azerbaijan.

Video: spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)