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Platalea ajaja

Linnaeus, 1758

Roseate Spoonbill

G5Secure Found in 1 roadless area NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101648
Element CodeABNGE05010
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAves
OrderPelecaniformes
FamilyThreskiornithidae
GenusPlatalea
Synonyms
Ajaia ajaja(Linnaeus, 1758)
Other Common Names
Colhereiro-Americano (PT) Espátula Rosada (ES) Spatule rosée (FR)
Concept Reference
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 2002. Forty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk 119(3):897-906.
Taxonomic Comments
Formerly placed in the genus Ajaia. AOU (2002) recommended merging Ajaia into Platalea, although the evidence is disputable.
Conservation Status
Review Date1996-11-20
Change Date1996-11-20
Edition Date1995-05-04
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences81 to >300
Rank Reasons
Very large range, locally fairly common. Secure on a global basis, but regional trends are unknown for most areas.
Range Extent Comments
Resident locally from northern Sinaloa, Gulf coast of Texas and Louisiana, and southern Florida (as far north as Tampa Bay on Gulf Coast) south locally along both coasts of Middle America and through Greater Antilles, and Bahamas to Uruguay, central Chile, and central Argentina. About 80% of U.S. breeders occur in southern Florida (24%) and eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana (46%) (Spendelow and Patton 1988). In the U.S., the highest winter densities occur on the Gulf coast of Texas and western Louisiana and in southern Florida (Root 1988). Wanders outside usual range.
Ecology & Habitat

Description

A large, long-legged wading bird with a dorso-ventrally flattened spatulate bill; wings and most of body are bright pink in adults, pale pink in immatures; adult has unfeathered greenish or buffy head with a blackish nape (first-fall bird has white feathering on head); average length 81 cm, wingspan 127 cm (NGS 1983).

Diagnostic Characteristics

No other large wading bird in the New World has a spatulate bill.

Habitat

Marshes, swamps, ponds, rivers, and lagoons (AOU 1983); also tidal flats. Seems to prefer brackish waters and coastal bays in Florida and Texas, freshwater marshes in Louisiana (Spendelow and Patton 1988). Wherever shallow, open, still or slow-flowing water occurs (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Nests in mangroves (e.g., Florida), in low bushes along coastal islands and on ground on treeless spoil banks along waterways (e.g., Texas and Louisiana).

Ecology

Gregarious; usually feeds, roosts and nests in groups or flocks (Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Reproduction

Clutch size usually is 2-3. Incubation lasts 23-24 days, by both sexes. Young are tended by both parents, leave nest at 5-6 weeks, fly well at 7-8 weeks, fed until about the eighth week.
Palustrine Habitats
HERBACEOUS WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN4
ProvinceRankNative
FloridaS2Yes
ArizonaS2NYes
MississippiS1B,S2NYes
ArkansasSNAYes
North CarolinaSNAYes
LouisianaS4Yes
South CarolinaS2Yes
TexasS4BYes
IllinoisSXYes
GeorgiaSNRYes
Roadless Areas (1)
New Hampshire (1)
AreaForestAcres
Wild RiverWhite Mountain National Forest46,878
References (24)
  1. Allen, R.P. 1942. The roseate spoonbill. Nat. Audubon Soc. Resources Report no. 2.
  2. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
  3. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 2002. Forty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk 119(3):897-906.
  4. BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
  5. Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt. 2000. A field checklist of the birds of Guyana. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  6. Dumas, J. V. 2000. Roseate Spoonbill (AJAIA AJAJA). No. 490 IN A. Poole and F. Gill, editors, The birds of North America. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 32pp.
  7. Hancock, J. A., J. A. Kushlan, and M. P. Kahl. 1992. Storks, ibises and spoonbills of the world. Academic Press, San Diego, California. iv + 336 text pages.
  8. Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
  9. Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
  10. Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
  11. National Geographic Society (NGS). 1983. Field guide to the birds of North America. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC.
  12. Palmer, R. S. (editor). 1962. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 1. Loons through flamingos. Yale University Press, New Haven. 567 pp.
  13. Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  14. Powell, G.V.N. 1987. Habitat use by wading birds in a subtropical estuary: implications of hydrography. Auk 104:740-749.
  15. Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 511 pp.
  16. Ridgely, R. S. 2002. Distribution maps of South American birds. Unpublished.
  17. Ridgely, R. S. and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
  18. Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
  19. Sibley, D. A. 2000a. The Sibley guide to birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  20. Smith, J. P. 1995. Foraging flights and habitat use of nesting wading birds (Ciconiiformes) at Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Colonial Waterbirds 18:139-158.
  21. Spendelow, J. A. and S. R. Patton. 1988. National Atlas of Coastal Waterbird Colonies in the Contiguous United States: 1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.
  22. Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
  23. Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  24. Zook, J. L. 2002. Distribution maps of the birds of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Unpublished.