Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill at the edge of a lagoonJuvenile 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 SpoonbillResting 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