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  Profile

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  In flight

Cranes & Waders

Royal Spoonbill

Platalea regia

• rare
• 40 km/h
• Least Concern

Sweeps its spatula bill side-to-side through shallow water, snapping shut on anything that moves. Zero guesswork.

Population

Not precisely quantified globally (BirdLife DataZone/IUCN Red List factsheet pages returned JS-shell/403 on all access attempts this session, so no global "mature individuals" figure could be independently pulled); regional data shows the NZ breeding population grew from ~52 birds (1977) to ~2,360 (2012) to ~4,593 (2024), and the species is generally described as widespread and locally increasing across its Australasian range

Habitat

Intertidal flats and shallows of both fresh and saltwater wetlands — estuaries, mudflats, mangroves, lakes, swamps, rivers and harbours, generally in water less than about 40 cm deep; breeds in tall trees (e.g. kahikatea), ground sites near water, reeds, low shrubs, and rocky headlands

Fun fact

The Royal Spoonbill hunts almost blind to what it's catching, sweeping its sensitive, spoon-shaped bill side to side through murky shallow water and snapping shut on prey it detects purely by touch via vibration-sensing nerve endings inside the bill.

Range

Native to Australia; also occurs in New Zealand (where it now breeds throughout North and South Islands, with occasional records from the Chatham and Kermadec Islands), Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, with vagrant records in New Caledonia

Diet

Carnivorous — fish, crustaceans (shrimps, crabs, yabbies), aquatic insects, molluscs (occasionally snails), and amphibians, occasionally taking plant material, located by touch as it sweeps its sensitive spoon-shaped bill side to side through shallow water

Size

0.8 m

Wingspan

1.2 m

Lifespan

15 years