African Spoonbill Platalea alba Scientific name definitions
- LC Least Concern
- Names (38)
- Monotypic
Text last updated June 25, 2013
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Species names in all available languages
Language | Common name |
---|---|
Afrikaans | Lepelaar |
Asturian | Paletón africanu |
Basque | Mokozabal afrikarra |
Bulgarian | Африканска лопатарка |
Catalan | becplaner africà |
Croatian | afrička žličarka |
Czech | kolpík africký |
Dutch | Afrikaanse lepelaar |
English | African Spoonbill |
English (United States) | African Spoonbill |
Finnish | afrikankapustahaikara |
French | Spatule d'Afrique |
French (Canada) | Spatule d'Afrique |
Galician | Cullereiro africano |
German | Rotgesichtlöffler |
Greek | Αφρικανική Χουλιαρομύτα |
Hebrew | כפן אפריקני |
Hungarian | Afrikai kanalasgém |
Icelandic | Afríkuspænir |
Italian | Spatola africana |
Japanese | アフリカヘラサギ |
Latvian | Āfrikas karošknābis |
Lithuanian | Baltoji girnovė |
Norwegian | afrikaskjestork |
Polish | warzęcha czerwonolica |
Portuguese (Angola) | Colhereiro-africano |
Portuguese (Portugal) | Colhereiro-africano |
Romanian | Lopătar african alb |
Russian | Белая колпица |
Serbian | Afrički kašičar |
Slovak | lyžičiar ružovonohý |
Slovenian | Afriška žličarka |
Spanish | Espátula Africana |
Spanish (Spain) | Espátula africana |
Swedish | afrikansk skedstork |
Turkish | Afrika Kaşıkçısı |
Ukrainian | Косар африканський |
Zulu | isixulamasele |
Platalea alba Scopoli, 1786
Definitions
- PLATALEA
- platalea
- alba
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Field Identification
90–91 cm; c. 1790 g. Unmistakable ; only white Platalea with intense pink red legs. Short crest . Male slightly larger. No seasonal variation. Immature has more feathering on forehead, smaller crest and blackish tips to primaries and underwing coverts ; bill duller, legs black.
Systematics History
Subspecies
Distribution
Senegal E to Ethiopia and Eritrea, and S to Western Cape (South Africa); also Madagascar.
Habitat
Lakes , marshes, reservoirs and other large, shallow inland waters ; less often in coastal lagoons, salt pans, creeks and estuaries.
Movement
Little known. It is probably nomadic throughout most of range, moving in response to local rainfall (2). Some are possibly migratory in southern Africa but the evidence is unconvincing, where it wanders considerable distances: ringing results show some movements of several hundred kilometres, including from Transvaal to Zambia. Those in Madagascar are apparently sedentary.
Vagrants have been recorded in S Oman and S Yemen: in Yemen there have been several records since 1996 and breeding has been suspected at Aden marsh (3). A recent spate of records in Europe, from Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy; and including an instance of successful nesting in France in autumn 2001 (4), has been attributed to escaped birds. However, the Spanish and French observations show seasonal peaks and are mainly along the migration routes of Dutch Eurasian Spoonbills, which winter at the Senegal delta alongside African Spoonbills, suggesting that some of the European records may involve wild birds (5).
Diet and Foraging
Mainly consumes small fish and aquatic invertebrates. However, the main food brought to chicks at a colony in the Free State, South Africa, was frogs, mainly Rema angolensis and Xenopus laevis, and aquatic invertebrates (6). It usually feeds in small parties of up to 10 birds, sometimes singly. It wades slowly into shallow water with the bill partly or wholly submerged, sweeping it from side to side . It also probes in mud and sometimes dashes about rapidly, chasing fish.
Sounds and Vocal Behavior
Usually silent away from nest, but occasionally utters guttural grunts or a double quack "aark-ark". During display, a louder crane-like hooting "rroooh...rroooh..rroooh..". Also bill-snapping, but no true bill-clattering as in most storks.
Breeding
From West Africa east to Sudan laying peaks in the dry season. Nests with eggs or young may be found at the Senegal delta, Mauritania during November–January (7). Breeding in East and Central Africa is mostly in the rains, sometimes in the dry season. In South Africa it breeds in spring and summer in the winter rainfall region of the southwestern Cape province but breeding is in winter in the summer rainfall areas: however, at a colony in the Free State, South Africa, laying occurred between early October and early November (6). Breeding is colonial, in groups of up to 250 pairs, or even more, often with other Ciconiiformes, cormorants and darters.
The nest is a flattish, oval platform of sticks or reeds; situated on partly submerged trees, in bushes or reeds, or on rocky islets. Over 300 pairs in mixed colonies near the Doho ricefields, Uganda, nested in trees, in particular Mvule trees (Milicia excelsea) (8). Clutch size is usually 2–3 eggs (2–4); chicks have white down; incubation 25–29 days; young birds independent at c. 46 days.
Conservation Status
Not globally threatened (Least Concern). The global population size is unknown but it is thought to fall within the range of 10,000–100,000 birds in continental Africa, with perhaps up to a further 1000–5000 birds in Madagascar. The breeding range extends over most of sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of the rainforest areas and the arid south-west. It has extended its range southwestwards in the Cape Province, South Africa, since the mid 20th century, probably in response tothe increase in artificial wetlands there. It is generally regarded as uncommon and patchily distributed, but it is locally common, for example on the Rift Valley lakes of Kenya, Tanzania and western Uganda and at the Senegal river delta. Resting flocks of up to 1000 birds have been recorded in east Africa. At the Senegal delta in Mauritania there were 600–800 pairs in January 2005 and 2006 in the Diawling National Park; counts of over 2000 birds have been made here in recent years, with a peak count of 3374 in January 2008 (7). In 1987, 300–400 pairs bred in a colony at Lake Fitri, Chad, and 300–350 pairs comprised two colonies in the inner Niger Delta, Mali. In 2004 over 300 pairs were nesting in mixed waterbird colonies near the Doho ricefields, eastern Uganda (8). Colonies of 400–500 pairs have been reported from Lake St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (9). In Tanzania in 2001 two colonies in the Bahi Swamp comprised some 360 and 120 nests and a further 440 birds were present at the same time at Lake Kitangiri, 240 km to the north-west, where breeding also seemed likely (10).
In Madagascar, it is still common around some of the lakes of the west coast, particularly Lakes Kinkony, Bemamba and Ihotry, but it is seriously threatened by destruction of breeding colonies. It has declined notably at Lake Aloatra, where it was formerly frequent. A large ibis colony at Ambarimboro, north-west Madagascar, in April 2004–June 2006 held only 3–4 nests of this species (11).
- Year-round
- Migration
- Breeding
- Non-Breeding