Roseate Spoonbill

Platalea ajaja

Pink because of shrimp, weird because of evolution. Sweeps your message across the shallows.

Population: ~68,500–171,000 mature individuals globally (stable trend; data quality noted as poor)
Habitat: Shallow fresh, brackish, and coastal saltwater wetlands — marshes, swamps, lagoons, and mangrove-lined lakes and estuaries, typically from sea level up to about 1,000 m
Fun fact: The Roseate Spoonbill's pink plumage comes not from its genes but from carotenoid pigments (like canthaxanthin) in the crustaceans it eats, the same coloration mechanism that pinks a flamingo.
Range: Coastal and inland wetlands of the Americas: southeastern/southern United States (Florida, Texas, Louisiana, with recent marked northward range expansion — vagrants recorded as far as Washington D.C., upstate New York, and New Hampshire), Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America east of the Andes to Argentina/Uruguay — roughly 44 countries/territories
Diet: Crustaceans, small fish, aquatic insects, mollusks, frogs, and newts, captured by sweeping its spatulate bill side to side through shallow water
Size: 0.79 m
Wingspan: 1.26 m
Lifespan: 18 years

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