Mangemangeroa Birds

List

Picture Ident

Menu

Main
Org Page

Royal Spoonbill

Platalea regia

The 'bird list' for Mangemangeroa and its environs has been augmented by the occasional appearance of the elegant Royal Spoonbill, in ones and twos since 2002. In 2007 two birds were around from at least May to August, and were seen by many people feeding out on the mud-flats or roosting near the high-tide line.
More closely related to ibises than herons, the stockily built spoonbill can nonetheless be mistaken for a white heron, especially when in flight. However, at closer range it is quite different, with its amazing long black spatulate bill, black legs, and sideways 'floor-polisher' action of the bill as it searches for small fish and invertebrates in shallow water.
Juvenile birds are distinguishable by their black wing tips and smooth surface to the bill. Adults have several funky additional features: a small yellow 'eyebrow' patch of skin above each eye, a red spot on the forehead, and a wrinkly pattern on the bill. In breeding plumage, a shaggy crest adorns the back of the head and there is a yellowish smudge across the breast feathers. Like many of our birds the Spoonbill was originally an Australian immigrant, blown across the Tasman by the westerly winds, and finally setting up business here.
Spoonbills have nested alongside the Kotuku (white heron) at Okarito, Westland, since 1949. Over the past 30 years, new colonies have been established along the Otago coast, near Blenhiem and Invercargill and, in the North Island, on Kapiti Island and the Parengarenga Harbour. After breeding, birds disperse widely to various favoured locations; hence their regular appearance around the Auckland isthmus. So look out for them next autumn and winter, and check for black wing-tips, which would indicate that a new generation had found our neighbourhood to their liking! Bruce Keeley