Spoonbill

Spoonbills are water birds and can easily be identified by their distinctive, long flat black and yellow spoon-shaped bill. These are large white birds with black legs and can be seen individually or in flocks in the company of other water birds like egrets, storks, herons, etc. near water – ponds, lakes, river banks with a good tree cover.

They have a pale yellowish brown patch on their forenecks. Spoonbills acquire a long crest at the back of their neck during the breeding season.

They have no song. A low grunt and a clattering of their bills is all the sound they make.

Their food consists of fish, tadpoles, frogs, aquatic insects and some vegetable matter. The bird rakes up mud in shallow waters with its spoon shaped bill, disturbing tadpoles, frogs, molluscs, insects and vegetable matter.

Their flight is rather slow, with steady wing beats, neck and legs extended. Flocks fly in V-formation or in diagonal single lines.