Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes)

Sexes similar, male has longer bill.

Adults: Breeding: General plumage is white, with black tips to inner flight feathers. Face, naked and fleshy with narrow black border. Eye, yellow. Bill, straight with spoon-shaped tip, pale yellow with fine transverse caruncles. Base half of upper mandible and all of the lower mandible have narrow black lines running out from the central ridge to bill edge. Legs and feet, pale yellow with black joints. Blue tinge on face. Spiny white nuptial plumes on breast. Non-breeding: Lack plumes and blue tinge on face.

Immatures: Face, flesh-yellow without border line. Bill, flesh-yellow.

Downy Young: White. Bill, face and feet, flesh.

Other Names (World)
Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Yellow-legged Spoonbill

Family
Threskiornithidae (Ibises, Spoonbills)

Size
76 - 92 cm

First Described (Guide)
Gould, 1838

Derivation
Plat-al'-e-a - Gk, spoonbill: fläv-i-pës - L., flavus, yellow: L., pes, foot

Habitat
Small fresh waters. Farm dams, roadside pools, inland claypans and tanks, irrigated areas, channels, regulators, ricefields. Seldom on tidal areas but occasionally saline wetlands.

Range (Guide)

Australia (B).

Vagrant to New Zealand.

Image of Range of Yellow-billed Spoonbill

Australia.

Population
Estimated population is 25,000 - 100,000 (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Food
Fish, aquatic insects and molluscs.

Voice
A feeble reedy grunt. Single 'chhee' calls. Clapping of the bill in threat and display.

Listen to call of Yellow-billed Spoonbill

(45Kb) © ? (1)

Xeno-Canto Sound Files

Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes) [XC896224]
by id from Epsom, Greater Bendigo City, Victoria, Australia (call, wind, microphone noise)

Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes) [XC574691]
by nick talbot from Gilgai Wetland, Pilliga, New South Wales, Australia (wing noise)

Nest
A large structure of sticks, loosely interlaced, placed in an upright forked branch of a tree, preferably one growing in water. Breeds singly or in loose colonies, mostly in the company of herons and cormorants.

Eggs (Guide)
Up to 4; matt, white; tapered oval; about 68 x 45 mm. Incubation: 26 - 31 days; by both sexes.

Young
Semi-altricial, nidicolous. Fed by regurgitation by both parents. Fledge after 4 weeks.

Subspecies
No subspecies.

References
See References.

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9

Files:

JPG files for Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes) - 10 files

MP3 files for Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes) - 1 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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