Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja

Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja. Photographs taken in the greater Zihuantanejo area, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.

Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, December 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja. Photographs taken in within the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, February  2023. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja, is a member of the Threskiornithidae Family of Ibises and Spoonbills. They are mid-sized in stature. In Mexico they are found in the coastal regions within the Atlantic Slope from Tampico, Tamaulipas to Belize, including the Yucatán Peninsula, and within the Pacific Slope from southern Sonora to Guatemala at elevations below 915 m (3,000 feet) and on occasion to 1,740 m (5,700 feet). They can also be found around the lakes of the Mexican plateau in Coachuila and Durango during the summer months. From a conservation perspective the Roseate Spoonbill is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. Along the coast they are found in bays, beaches, mangroves and marshes in marine and brackish environments. Inland they can be found in lakes, marshes, wet prairies, rivers and forested swamps. They consume small aquatic crustaceans, fish and insects.