Roseate Spoonbills Roosting

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=_dpPXGKyPRk

Roseate Spoonbills nesting at the Alligator Farm zoological park in St. Augustine, FL. • I had a report to do on them, and had a good time. • Here's what I wrote for my report • Status: • The Roseate Spoonbill's conservation status is in least concern. • Distribution: • They are commonly found in coastal areas in South America, throughout the coast of the Gulf of Mexico along Central America and United States, around the east coast of Florida as far north as St. Augustine, and in the West Indies. As wading birds, they stay close to estuaries, bays, and marshes. • Description: • People often mistake the Roseate Spoonbill for Flamingoes when they cannot see their big, spoon-shaped bill. They grow to almost a meter tall with a wingspan almost one and a half meters. They have long legs for wading in the water. While juvenile they are pale pink, almost white. As they mature, their pink color deepens, a band on the top of their wings will go dark red, and a patch of red on the chest will also appear. They bald as adults, and show their dark skin on a stripe on the back of their head. An orange blotch also appears on their shoulders and gets darker as they age. • Food: • Roseate spoonbills sift through the mud under shallow water with their long beak in search of crustaceans, small fish, mollusks, snails and insects. They do this by moving their beak side to side sifting through mud to search and snap up their prey. They do this in any water shallow enough for them to wade through. They get their pink feathers from the crustaceans they eat; the crustaceans feed on algae and absorb the pigment canthaxanthin, which is passed on to the Roseate Spoonbills. • Habitat: • They are coastal birds in semi tropical to tropical regions of South America, Central America, and southern North America. They nest in trees in forested swamps, mangroves, etc. Their feeding occurs in salt, brackish and fresh waters. • • Mating: • Mating usually occurs in the spring. Roseates will gather in colonies and pair off to mate. Males bring twigs and small branches for females to build nests in trees. Eggs are laid one at a time every few days as the male mates with the female frequently. Both parents feed the young and guard the nest. They will have from 1 to 5 eggs each season. When the young reach one month of age, both parents may leave the nest for feeding. Fledglings leave the nest at around six weeks of age. • Roseate Spoonbills can be seen at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery roosting along with many other wading birds in the spring and early summer. • Predators: • In the late 1800s, Roseates were nearly hunted to extinction for their feathers. They were wanted for hats and fans. They began to slowly grow population again in the early 1900s and are now between 100,000-250,000 in the wild. Turkey vultures, bald eagles, and raccoons have been reported in killing fledglings. They are still hunted by people in Central America, but are protected in North America. • Behavior: • More communication is done through actions and stances. They are generally a quiet bird as far as calls go. Their calls sound like grunts and are hard to hear in observation. • While roosting, they greet after absences from the nest with head shakes and bill clapping. The male regularly presents sticks to the female for building the nest. • They are colonial with other species of birds. • Importance: • Roseates relation to the ecosystem is not documented. • They are pretty, and are enjoyable for people to see. • Threats: • Degradation and destruction of habitat are the main threats to the Roseates. South Florida's over development of housing had displaced many Roseates, forcing them to travel farther and farther north to find feeding grounds and roosting sites. Pollution from industry has made some waterways uninhabitable where Roseates would frequent for food. • What people can do: • Respecting the ecosystem and being aware of human impact is the greatest change people can have individually. • Where people can learn more: • Locally, a great place to learn about Roseate Spoonbills is the Alligator Farm Zoological Park of St. Augustine. There are many websites with information about the Roseates (listed in references). • References: • http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/spec... • http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/rose... • http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/... • http://www.evergladeshub.com/lit/pdf0...

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