Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill at the edge of a lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
I am still working on moving older images to my new galleries and most recently I have been reprocessing some of my Roseate Spoonbill images that I took while I lived in Florida. I do miss seeing these large, pink wading birds but there have been two confirmed sightings in Utah so maybe one day I will find another one here. You never know.
Juvenile Roseate Spoonbills are a softer, lighter pink than the adults, lack the carmine wing coverts and orange tail and they have feathers on their heads whereas the adult are bald headed.
I photographed this juvenile Roseate Spoonbill in May of 2008 from inside a lagoon at Fort De Soto’s north while the immature spoonbill and a few adults preened and rested on the shoreline. The spoonbills pretty much ignored me because I was sitting still in the water.
Resting juvenile Roseate Spoonbill – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/1000, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
They were so relaxed with my presence some of them even went to sleep while I photographed them.
Some nicknames for the roseate spoonbill are Flame Bird, Banjo-bill, Pink Curlew, Pink and Pinkie but the one I would hear most often is Spoonie because of their spoon shaped bill.
Life is good.
Mia
I especially like that first image and the whole shadow included.
Lovely images Mia, hopefully I will at FDS by mid Dec..
A charmer. Thank you.
Beautiful bird! My father illustrated a book on the Everglades and the Spoonbills were one of his favorite birds…those other names, except for “spoonies” , werecall new to me…
Beautiful images, Mia. A treat each morning to see and read your posts.