Royal Spoonbill
Platalea regia
Also known as: Regal Spoonbill
About This Species
Wades through shallow estuaries, lagoons and wetlands, sweeping its distinctive spatulate bill side to side to detect fish and crustaceans. Small groups are most easily found on exposed mudflats at low tide or feeding actively around dawn and dusk. Wetland reserves in Australia and New Zealand are the most reliable places to watch it at close range.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Stay at least 20 to 30 metres back from feeding or roosting birds, and use formed paths or hides where reserves provide them rather than walking out onto mudflats.
- Give a much wider berth to nesting colonies, which are often on islands and active through spring and summer.
- It is protected under wildlife legislation in both Australia and New Zealand.
LCAvesPelecaniformesThreskiornithidae
Seasonal Activity
302,703 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Pelecaniformes
- Family
- Threskiornithidae
Photo
(c) Ben Ackerley, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ben Ackerley
CC-BY-NC-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.