AnimalvsAnimal
Roseate Spoonbill Myakka River State Park🦩

Photo: User:Mwanner · CC BY-SA 3.0

SpeciesPelecaniformesThreskiornithidae
Birds

🦩Roseate Spoonbill

Platalea ajaja Linnaeus, 1758

The roseate spoonbill is a social wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. The roseate spoonbill's pink color is diet-derived, consisting of the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin, like the American flamingo.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
8
Photos
2
Measurements
12
vs you
≈ 1/42nd of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
1.49 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
28 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Roseate Spoonbill

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
1.49 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1.04 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.09 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.35 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.16 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.1 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
28 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Gestation
23 days
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Litter size
about 3
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Wetland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Terrestrial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
1.5 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Roseate Spoonbill yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderPelecaniformes
  5. ›familyThreskiornithidae
  6. ›genusPlatalea
  7. ›speciesPlatalea ajaja
Full lineage
  1. superclassTetrapoda
  2. orderSauria
  3. classBirds · Aves
  4. familyThreskiornithidae
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. familyThreskiornithidae
More

More about the Roseate Spoonbill

In other languages
becplaner rosat (ca), kolpík růžový (cs), Rosaskestork (da), Rosalöffler (de), Platalea ajaja (es), ruusukapustahaikara (fi) … and 24 more languages
More photos
Roseate Spoonbill Myakka River State Park042 Roseate spoonbill in Encontro das Águas State Park Photo by Giles Laurent
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