{"id":43255,"date":"2016-11-25T05:43:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T12:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=43255"},"modified":"2025-04-11T08:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T13:34:53","slug":"juvenile-roseate-spoonbill-on-floridas-west-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/25\/juvenile-roseate-spoonbill-on-floridas-west-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill on Florida’s West Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am still working on moving older images to my new galleries and most recently I have been reprocessing some of my Roseate Spoonbill images that I took while I lived in Florida. I do miss seeing these large, pink wading birds but there have been two confirmed sightings in Utah so maybe one day I will find another one here. You never know.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Roseate Spoonbill at the edge of a lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Juvenile Roseate Spoonbills are a softer, lighter pink than the adults, lack the carmine wing coverts and orange tail and they have feathers on their heads whereas the adult are bald headed.<\/p>\n

I photographed this juvenile Roseate Spoonbill in May of 2008 from inside a lagoon at Fort De Soto’s north while the immature spoonbill and a few adults preened and rested on the shoreline. The spoonbills pretty much ignored me because I was sitting still in the water.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting juvenile Roseate Spoonbill – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/1000, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

They were so relaxed with my presence some of them even went to sleep while I photographed them.<\/p>\n

Some nicknames for the roseate spoonbill are Flame Bird<\/em>, Banjo-bill<\/em>, Pink Curlew<\/em>, Pink<\/em> and Pinkie<\/em> but the one I would hear most often is Spoonie<\/em> because of their spoon shaped bill.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Roseate Spoonbill photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I photographed this juvenile Roseate Spoonbill in May of 2008 from inside a lagoon at Fort De Soto’s north while the immature spoonbill and a few adults preened and rested on the shoreline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,177],"tags":[173,4077,4067,4071,3997,4266,4156,1481,4810,4811,5529,165,313],"class_list":["post-43255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-roseate-spoonbills","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-lagoon","tag-platalea-ajaja","tag-resting","tag-roseate-spoonbill","tag-spoonbill","tag-spoonbills","tag-spoonie","tag-spring","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/roseate-spoonbill-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7230.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bfF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7059,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/09\/roseate-spoonbills-in-a-sea-fog\/","url_meta":{"origin":43255,"position":0},"title":"Roseate Spoonbills In A Sea Fog","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One very foggy May morning I came across a small flock of Roseate Spoonbills in a tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto's north beach and photograph them for about 15 minutes before they flew off to find food.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill preening in a sea fog, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-fog-low-light-mia-mcpherson-8668.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-fog-low-light-mia-mcpherson-8668.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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descriptive words I thought of when I saw my first Roseate Spoonbill.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roseate Spoonbill feeding in a quiet lagoon, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-feeding-mia-mcpherson-5333.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-feeding-mia-mcpherson-5333.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-feeding-mia-mcpherson-5333.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6867,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/22\/roseate-spoonbill-in-evening-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":43255,"position":3},"title":"Roseate Spoonbill In Evening Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Evening can have marvelous light too though as shown in the Roseate Spoonbill image above that I photographed in Florida as it hunted for prey in a tidal lagoon.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roseate Spoonbill in evening light, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/roseate-spoonbill-mia-mcpherson-6232.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/roseate-spoonbill-mia-mcpherson-6232.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/roseate-spoonbill-mia-mcpherson-6232.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7527,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/15\/roseate-spoonbill-and-wood-stork-size-comparison\/","url_meta":{"origin":43255,"position":4},"title":"Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork Size Comparison","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This photo shows a Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork on the shoreline of a tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida and it shows how the Wood Stork can dwarf the Roseate Spoonbill in height.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wood Stork walking near a lagoon, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-walking-mia-mcpherson-8623.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-walking-mia-mcpherson-8623.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-walking-mia-mcpherson-8623.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-walking-mia-mcpherson-8623.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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