Royal Spoonbill

Thanks so much for projecting my cheeky cockatoo into the spotlight - I really appreciate all your delightful comments.

Pretty busy day - had a delightful Blip-meet with JMK and her husband John from New Zealand. The weather has, thankfully, cleared up a bit, so I drove our two visitors down to Victor Harbor where they will be staying for a couple of days. Regretfully, I won't see them again, as I leave on my own trip
soon, but from the sounds of it they are going to be pretty busy.

The scenery at the moment is splendid. Everything is so green, and there's A LOT of water around. All the farm dams are full, and the creeks and rivers running quite high.

Seeing that I was at the South Coast, on the way home I called by my favourite birding spot near Goolwa. By golly, the water in the Murray is high, and as a result all the wading birds have disappeared, leaving just a couple of egrets, and this rather lonely looking spoonbill.

I've never blipped a spoonbill (Platalea regia) before, so here's some info.

The Royal Spoonbill is a large white waterbird with black, spatulate (spoon-shaped) bill, facial skin, legs and feet. During the breeding season, it has a distinctive nuchal (back of head or nape of neck) crest, which can be up to 20 cm long in male birds (usually shorter in females). The crest can be erected during mating displays to reveal bright pink skin underneath. Breeding adults also have a creamy-yellow wash across the lower neck and upper breast and a strip of bright pink skin along the edge of the underwings which is obvious when the bird opens its wings. The facial skin is black with a yellow patch above the eye and a red patch in the middle of the forehead, in front of the crest feathers. Females are slightly smaller with shorter legs and bill. Out of breeding season, the nuchal crests are reduced, the underwing is not bright pink and the plumage is less brilliant, often appearing 'dirty'. Young birds are similar to non-breeding adults without a crest or coloured face patches, and are slightly smaller with a shorter, smoother bill. The Royal Spoonbill is most often seen wading in shallow waters, sweeping its submerged bill back and forth in a wide arc to find food.