Eurasian Spoonbill

The Eurasian spoonbill is almost unmistakable in most of its range. Breeding birds are all white apart from dark legs, a black, spoon-shaped bill with a yellow tip and a yellow patch on the breast, and they carry a crest. Non-breeders lack the crest and breast patch, and immatures have a pale bill and black tips to the primaries. Unlike herons, spoonbills fly with the neck outstretched. It is mostly silent; even at colonies the main sounds are bill-snapping, grunting and occasional trumpeting. The genus name means broad, for the bill (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in Europe, in a broad band across central Asia to Korea, around the Persian Gulf and in southern Asia, and locally in Africa. Birds breeding in warmer parts of Asia, Africa and Iberia are resident or move only locally, while more northern breeders migrate south for the winter. Its closest relatives are the royal and black-faced spoonbills. SoIB 2023 lists it as resident in India with local movements, estimates a long-term decline of about 58% and a current fall of about 7% a year, and rates it a High conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).