(Please see picture gallery below – if you have any pix please send to sheilaelliot@yahoo.com)

June Bird of the Month – Roseate Spoonbill 

From Ben Kolstad’s article in the May-June Kite: “

If you’re into long-legged wading birds, wait until you see June’s bird of the month: the unusually billed and strikingly pink Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). Visitors to our local wetlands see the large pink bird and immediately think: flamingo! And while they are close relatives, flamingos are much larger, with even longer legs and neck but a shorter, differently unusual bill. If you’re curious, you might like to know that some scientists believe that the pink coloration that roseate spoonbills (and flamingos) acquire as they mature is due to their diet of carotenoid-rich organisms like shrimp. The more they eat, the pinker they get. It goes like this: Spoonbills eat shrimp, shrimp eat algae, and the algae make their own red and yellow pigments, called carotenoids. Very unusual bill.”

Come to our June meeting to hear our own bird expert, Clive Pinnock, tell us more about these characteristic (and charismatic) south Florida birds.”

(Photographer’s please note that next month’s July 2014 Bird will be the  Green-winged Teal)