The Roseate Spoonbill is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae and it is named after its bright pink plumage and oddly unique beak structure.

The flamboyant Roseate Spoonbill looks like it came straight out of a Dr Seuss book with its bright pink feathers, red eyes staring out from a partly bald greenish head, and giant spoon-shaped bill. It is a resident breeder in South and North America, mostly east of the Andes and in the coastal regions of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and the Gulf Coast of America as far north as South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach. In winter they leave Florida to stay in Chile or Argentina.

The bird feeds on aquatic insects, crustaceans, frogs, newts and tiny fish. Like the American flamingo their pink color is diet-derived since shrimps, crabs and crayfish are their favourite menu and they fill the spoonbill with the organic pigments called carotenoids.

The Roseate Spoonbill presented here was prepared by a Swiss taxidermist after its natural demise.