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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Brent Ward

Roseate Spoonbill

Ajaia ajaja

Physical Characteristics

  • These birds are pink and white with scarlet-tinted wings. The neck is white, legs and eyes red, and tail feathers yellow to orange. The head is bare of feathers and grey-green. The 6 - 7 inch bill is grey-green and flattened like a spatula.
  • Size of average adult
    • length: 26 - 31 inches
    • weight: 2.6 - 3.9 pounds
  • Approximate life span is 10 years in captivity.

Diet

  • Wild: crustaceans, insects and larvae, mollusks, amphibians, fish, aquatic plants and seeds

Behavior

  • Nest in colonies in the company of ibises, herons and egrets
  • Nests are made of heaps of branches and plant stems lined with leaves and grass; located up in trees
  • Reproduction
    • clutch size: 1 - 4 dull white, speckled eggs
    • incubation: 22 - 24 days
    • both parents feed the chicks by regurgitation; young leave the nest at 4 - 5 weeks, but remain nearby and are fed by parents until at least 8 weeks.

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: remote swamplands surrounded by dense aquatic plants or mangrove forest
  • Distribution: Central and South America, Florida, Texas and Louisiana
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