The Spoonbill in Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura Fauna: A closer look at the Spoonbills in Fuerteventura.
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The Spoonbill or Platalea leucorodea
An Article by DaveG with The Voice Fuerteventura
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes ibises.
FOOD AND FEEDING
The Eurasian is the most common species of the spoonbills. Others include: Royal, African, and Blackfaced spoonbills. All spoonbills have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side. The moment any small aquatic creature touches the inside of the bill, an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish, it is snapped shut. Spoonbills generally prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. They need to feed many hours each day.
REPRODUCTION
Spoonbills are monogamous, but, so far as is known, only for one season at a time. The female lays a clutch of about three smooth, oval, white eggs and both parents incubate. The chicks hatch one at a time rather than all together. The newly hatched young are blind and cannot care for themselves immediately, so both parents feed them by partial regurgitation. Chicks’ bills are short and straight and only gain the characteristic spoonbill shape, as they mature. Their feeding continues for a few weeks after the family leaves the nest. The primary cause of brood failure appears not to be predation, but starvation.
HABITAT
Threats to the Eurasian spoonbill include habitat destruction by drainage and degradation by pollution. It is especially adversely affected by the disappearance of reed swamps. In Greece, over-fishing and disturbance have caused the population to decline and human exploitation of eggs and nestlings for food has threatened the species in the past.
WHERE TO FIND THEM
If you are lucky you can sometimes see them here along the foreshore. Usually during the early morning and at low-tide. I took these photos in Caleta and in the Barranco de la Torre. For details of the location and what other species you are likely to see there, turn to the island birdwatching map at the back of the Voice Fuerteventura magazine or see the map below, and look for Birdwatching Zone 8.
