Bird Guide › Roseate Spoonbill

How to Identify aRoseate Spoonbill

Platalea ajaja · 28–34 in (71–86 cm)

Male vs. female

Male

Deep pink wings and body with a white neck and chest, orange tail, and a bare greenish head on a long spatulate bill. Sexes look alike.

Female

Identical to the male but slightly smaller.

Male photo: Gordon Leggett / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Second photo: Charles J. Sharp / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick ID

An unmistakable pink wading bird with a long flat bill widened into a spoon at the tip.

Field marks

Bill flattened into a wide spoon at the tip
Bright pink plumage with deeper carmine shoulder patches
Bare greenish-gray head on adults
Flies with the neck outstretched

Similar species

American Flamingo — Far taller with a sharply bent bill and a long curved neck; very rare in the US.

White Ibis — White with a downcurved red bill, not pink with a spoon.

What it sounds like

A low grunting and clucking around the colony.

Behaviour that gives it away

Feeds by sweeping its open spoon-shaped bill side to side through shallow water, snapping shut the instant it touches prey.

Habitat & range

Coastal marshes, mangroves, mudflats and shallow lagoons along the Gulf and Florida.

When you'll see it

Present all year in southeastern North America.

What it eats

Small fish, shrimp and aquatic insects caught by touch.

Did you know?

Its pink comes from carotenoid pigments in the crustaceans it eats — the same source that colours flamingos.

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