Species profile
About the african spoonbill
The African spoonbill is a clean white bird with a bare red face, long red legs and a grey, spatula-tipped bill that gives the family its name. It feeds by wading forward with the bill partly open, sweeping it in wide arcs through the water and snapping shut on contact.
It is a bird of shallow, muddy water and is common along the Lake Manyara shoreline and on the floodplains of the southern parks, often feeding in loose parties among storks, ibises and egrets.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Tactile feeder, sweeping the bill through water and mud while walking steadily forward. Flies with the neck extended, unlike a heron.
Social life
Feeds in loose groups and breeds in mixed colonies with herons, ibises and cormorants in trees or reedbeds.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
A spatulate bill lined with sensitive touch receptors, allowing it to feed effectively in muddy water and after dark.
