The European Spoonbill

The Queen of the marshes and estuaries

has decided to nest in Italy.

Text and photos by Ernesto Francini

Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).

A candid white coat and a long flat bill are the unmistakable signs of this Lady of the swamps.

It is present to the mouths of the Danube river firmly, in the southern Yugoslavia, in Turkey, in the southern territories of the ex Soviet Union, but it is almost absent in the countries of our Western Europe.

The island of Texel in Holland, the lake of Neusiedl, to the border between Austria and Hungary and the mouths of the Guadalquivir, in southern Atlantic Spain, are the only three western European places to entertain some exemplary of Spoonbill.

In Italy it could be sporadically observed only during the migratory transit that crossed our peninsula, or as wintering specimen in few unities, but now, from some years, it has decided to nest in permanent mode.

It has reproduced for the first time in 1989 in the delta area of the Po river (Punte Alberete and Comacchio valleys) becoming a constant presence in continuous increase that has contributed to valorize the naturalistic importance of the coastal zone concerning the big delta of this river.

Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).	Spoonbill in mating (Platalea leucorodia).

The Spoonbill is a very particular bird that strikes for its beauty and for the strange form of the bill who observes it.

The adults are completely white with the black bill, they have a tawny yellow collar that surrounds the base of the neck, legs and black feet.

In the nuptial plumage it shows on the nape a crest ruffled of pens 10-12 cm.long.

It has an inclusive length between 80-90 cm and a wings opening between 110 and 130 cm.

In flight it is distinguished by the herons for the tense kept neck and for the flat and large form of its bill.

It spends the winter habitually along the southern coasts of the Mediterranean basin, but some individuals are moved as far as to reach the Senegal in Africa.

It is fed with invertebrate as the molluscs, shellfishes, small fishes, worms and aquatic insects.

It walks in the water, to search the food, with slow footstep, shaking to the right methodically and to the left its broad bill, kept partially open.

The same movement that puts in action a countryman that with the scythe it cuts the grass of a meadow.

Contrarily as the people think the bill of the Spoonbill doesn't filter water and mud.

The flat and wide extremity sounding the water and the fund of the swamp allows it simply to feel the presence of the prey before capturing it.

When the prey touches the inside part of the bill the same closes instantly trapping it.

Spoonbill in brooding at the nest (Platalea leucorodia).	Spoonbill nest with chick (Platalea leucorodia).

It nests in groups on bushes of willows, on trees, in the cane thickets, on the ground, up to reach a maximum height of 5 mt from the ground.

Normally it is the male that picks up the material for the nest, while the female is modeling it building a wide base and few deep.

It deposes 3-4 eggs of white color that it will incubate together with the male for 3 weeks.

At the birth the chicks are blind and both the parents feed them regurgitating the food partially.

The bills of the chicks are short and straight and they will assume the typical flat and large conformation only when the chicks will be grown-up.

The young Spoonbills begin to fly and to leave the nest after around 7 weeks from the birth and the feeding from their parents still continues for few weeks; departed which the parents force the young to get the food in autonomous mode, refusing to feed them again and showing at the same time the feeding technique by means of the bill.

It is interesting to note as the young Spoonbills are very balky to feed by themselves.

I have often observed young birds that, although already grown, with autonomy in the flight and of equivalent body dimensions already to those of the adult, whining repeatedly they continue to follow and ask food to the adults, showing not little difficulty to learn the technique to feed.

The maximum longevity is around 28 years.

Young Spoonbill with parent

(Platalea leucorodia).

In the Spoonbill the primary cause of the failure of a brood doesn't seem to be the predatory action by other species but the hunger and the lack of a suitable territory for the reproduction.

The drain of the marshy zones and the continuous deterioration of the environment have not allowed in the past the reproduction to the wild state of this bird in Italy.

The actual 80 pairs nesting in Italy, in comparison to an European population of some thousand of pairs, they cannot be certainly considered a great naturalistic success of our country, but surely they are a biological indicator of the naturalistic importance of the big Po river delta.

It is necessary don’t forget that the Spoonbill, being a bird that sounds in continuation the water and the fund of the swamps with its big bill, looking for food, it results to be between the most sensitive to the pollution.

The Spoonbill with the choice to nest in the Po river delta, in continuous way and I hope definitive, it wants to signal to us the great natural value of this part of our country.

Young Spoonbill that dries Its feathers with the sun (Platalea leucorodia).	Young Spoonbill in the Delta at sundown (Platalea leucorodia).

If this big area will be much more protected and the Italian authorities (National and Regional) will finally put of accord to decide to found of fact and not only hypothetically the

“NATIONAL PARK OF PO RIVER DELTA”, on the example than already done for others important national Italian parks, surely this territory would be subject to a great control and care from the men.

It could recover part of its ancient shine this way, gone lost in the time for the action of the man.

Of all this our community would have a great benefit, since a territory “more healthy” it is essential to improve the health of the man, not only for the life of the birds.

Spoonbill in flight (Platalea leucorodia).