adult summer

adult summer adult summer flying European distribution feeding

Identification

Spoonbills are mostly white like an egret but with bigger fatter bodies and, of course, those flattened, spoon-shaped bills. Feeding birds swing their heads, sweeping their bills from side to side through the water. Juveniles have paler bills and black wing tips but it is unusual to find birds like these with so much grey in their plumage. In flight the neck and legs are out-stretched but held below the level of the body.

Habitat

Breeds in reedbeds or waterside trees beside shallow lakes, marshes and fishponds. Winters on marshes and estuaries.

Behaviour

As the wide bill swoops through the water, it automatically snaps shut whenever it comes in contact with a food item which is then swallowed.

Migration

Birds from north-west and south-west Europe winter mainly in Western Africa. Those from south-east Europe winter in the Mediterranean and north Africa. Eastern European and Turkish birds appear to move to north-east Africa, the Middle East and India.

This information is taken from the BirdFile on the appropriate BirdGuides DVD-ROM. As well as video and sounds, our CD- and DVD-ROMs contain additional text on Voice, Sexing, Ageing, Food, Nests and Eggs and more.

For the purposes of our bird news services, Spoonbill is classed as Scarce: broadly speaking, species that are covered in British Birds' annual review of scarce species (and forms of similar rarity).

Brownsea Is., Dorset 13/08/2010	Gibraltar Point NNR, Lincs 15/08/2010	Gibraltar Point NNR, Lincs 15/08/2010	Quoile Pondage, Down 14/08/2010	Quoile Pondage, Down 14/08/2010
Cley, Norfolk 05/08/2010	Blacktoft Sands, E Yorks 31/07/2010	Oare Marshes, Kent 30/07/2010	Oare Marshes, Kent 30/07/2010	Oare Marshes, Kent 29/07/2010

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Spoonbill breeds in the following countries (Bird News Extra subscribers will see population statistics and information on trends for each country):

Albania
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Britain
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Macedonia
Moldova
Netherlands
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey
Ukraine

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	Natural England: Breeding Spoonbills cause a stir	Wednesday 4th August 2010
	The UK's first breeding colony of Spoonbills for 300 years successfully rears young in Norfolk.   read on
	Breeding Spoonbills in Dumfries and Galloway	Monday 1st September 2008
	Hot on the heels of this spring's breeding Cattle Egrets, this much-underwatched county produces a remarkable clutch of Spoonbills.   read on

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