Scientific name: Platalea leucorodia Linnaeus, 1758
Bird group: Spoonbills
Field characters. 86 cm. At once distinguished by white colouring and remarkable spatulate bill. Adult in summer with buffish-yellow patch at base of neck. Legs and bill black, the latter with a yellow point. Juvenile with black wing tips, no yellow patch on neck, flesh-coloured bill, and yellow to yellow-grey legs. Flies rather slowly with regular wing-beats, sometimes gliding; flocks mostly fly in line. Differs in flight from "white" herons by stretched neck and legs, and spoon-shaped bill.
Voice. A very silent bird. In breeding period, occasional growling sounds.
Distribution. Rare and endangered breeding bird; nests in colonies.
Habitat. Breeds in reedy fringes of lakes and lagoons; feeds in fresh, salt, or brackish waters with bottoms of mud, clay, or sand.
Food. Mainly waterbeetles, dragonflies, caddisflies, locusts, Hemiptera and Diptera, small fish, crustaceans, molluscs, leeches, worms, reptiles and amphibians. Feeds in shallow water by making sweeping movements with submersed bill slightly opened.
Eggs. Marked with small spots and streaks, sometimes with blotches underneath, often heavier at blunt end; sometimes unmarked. Ground colour white, colour of markings light or dark brown. Texture dull. Shape (and size) vary distinctly. Size 67 x 46 mm (52-77 x 36-50), weight 76 g. Eggs become very dirty during incubation, appearing sometimes like eggs of Common Buzzard.