Wild Florida Photo - Platalea ajaja

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Platalea ajaja

ROSEATE SPOONBILL

Synonym: Ajaia ajaja

Florida native

Florida Species of Special Concern
 

This distinctive bird is a resident of Florida, breeding from the Keys north to Tampa Bay and dispersing along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from July through October. Found in coastal flats, lagoons and marshes, rarely inland, and often nests in colonies with herons.
A large wader, nearly a meter in length with a wingspan of 1.3 m., roseate spoonbills have a mostly pink body, white on the back and neck, with a bare head. The spatulate bill of Platalea ajaja is swept back and forth through the water and mud feeling for aquatic invertebrates.

 
Platalea ajaja is a member of the Threskiornithidae - Ibises and Spoonbills family.
 

Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida

  Peter Alden
 An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more.

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A complete overview of Florida's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns and night sky. An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, beaches, forests, islands, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others. The guide is packed with visual information. The 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 14 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as 150 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals. For everyone who lives or spends time in Florida, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida.






Date record last modified:
Feb 22, 2006