Feeding Etiquette

by Norman Johnson

Title

Feeding Etiquette

Artist

Norman Johnson

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

A roseate spoonbill is surrounded by a group of immature American white Ibises in a marshy area off Bishops Habor Road near Rubonia, Florida in Manatee County. It was mid November of 2016 and the spoonbill seemed to be lecturing the young ibises about feeding etiquette.

The roseate spoonbill (platalea ajaja), essentially a neotropical bird, is a resident breeder in South America, mostly east of the Andes, and in coastal regions of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, the Gulf Coast of the United States through Florida up to central Florida on the Atlantic coast. Of the six species of spoonbills, it is the only one found in the New World and the only one whose head becomes completely bald as it ages.

The spoonbill walks slowly through fresh and coastal waters swinging its bill from side to side in the shallow water searching for the crustaceans, insects, frogs, newts and very small fish that it feeds upon. Its sensitive spoon shaped bill makes it easy to even sift through muddy water in its search for prey.

Its pink coloring, like the flamingos, is derived from the crustaceans it eats.

The American white ibis (eudocimus albus) can be found from Maryland to Florida in the southeastern United States, and along the gulf coast states to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America in Columbia and Venezuela, as well as the Caribbean. Look for it in the wetlands of the cypress, hardwood and mangrove swamps, as well as the freshwater and saltwater marshes along the coasts.

It is a plump, white bodied bird measuring from 22" to 26.8" in length with a wingspan between 35" and 41." The black wing tips show distictvely during flight. They have pink facial skin and a long down-curved bill that is also pink. In non-breeding adults, the bill and legs are a bright red-orange. During the first ten days of the breeding season the skin on the face and the bill darkens to a deep pink and the legs turn an almost purple-tinted red. These then fade to a paler pink and th

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December 22nd, 2016

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