Spoonbill

“Spoonbill is the popular name of the birds of the genus Platalea, belonging to the heron family (Ardeidæ), order Grallatores, from the shape of the bill, which is somewhat like a spoon, being curiously widened out at the tip. Live in society in wooded marshes, and on the sea-shore. Adult male is about 32 inches long; plumage white with pale pink tinge; at the junction of the neck with the breast there is a band of buffy yellow; the naked skin on the throat is yellow; legs and feet black; bill about eight inches long, very much flattened and grooved at the base, the expanded portion yellow, the rest black. There is a white occipital crest in both sexes. The spoonbill possesses no power of modulating its voice. The windpipe is bent on itself, like the figure 8 , the coils applied to each other and held in place by a thin membrane. This peculiarity does not exist in young birds. The roseate spoonbill, a native of the United States, has rose-colored plumage."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

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