Eurasian Spoonbill
Spoonbill ( Platalea leucorodia )
The Spoonbill ( Platalea leucorodia ), also called spoonbill, a bird from the family of ibises and spoonbills is ( Threskiornithidae ).
In Central Europe, the spoonbill is a local breeding and summer bird whose population has increased significantly in recent years. In the north- west of central Europe a significant area expansion is observed. Away from the breeding grounds he is a rare migrant.
Appearance
The spoonbill wearing white plumage, showing a delicate yellowish tinge, except for a yellow patch on the chest, the head, it is tinted orange brown. At the back of his head he wears a crest of long feathers, which he abspreizt in the excitation into a fan crown. It reaches 80 cm in length. The legs are black, the beak is bright in the young animal, while the adult birds have a black bill with a yellow tip. In flight, the neck is stretched.
Confusion opportunities exist with the African spoonbill, which has but unlike the Eurasian Spoonbill red legs and a red facial skin.
Distribution and habitat
The distribution of the spoonbill is from southern, western and central Europe, the Middle East, the North East of Africa and the Caspian region via the Indian subcontinent to East Asia. Two-thirds of the world's stock occurs in the Western Palearctic.
In Central Europe, the distribution area limited for a long time on some colonies in the Netherlands, Hungary and Slovakia. Since the 1990s, the nature based, among others, in the east of Austria and the Czech Republic, where she was formerly part of the breeding bird population. In Germany as well as in some areas of Western Europe, the spoonbill has resettled. In the Netherlands and Germany spoonbills usually on islands, due to the fact that there is less loss through predation. Major predators like foxes and ermine.
Löffler are obligate migratory birds, their winter quarters ranging from the Mediterranean to the Sahel and Sudan and Ethiopia. The spoonbill, which breed in Lower Saxony, unplug August and September through western France to the Atlantic coast and then pull over Gibraltar to West Africa. Before they cross the Mediterranean pause around 94 percent of all Western European spoonbill on the Costa de la Luz. The winter quarters of the breeding birds in the Netherlands and Spain on the coast of Mauritania, Senegal delta and even further south. The breeding birds of Austria and Hungary pull over Italy to Tunisia or Greece in the Nile Delta. The breeding birds of Spain return in January back to their breeding areas back to the Netherlands usually return back towards the end of March.
The habitat of the spoonbill are swamps and landing areas with reeds stock, a typical riparian vegetation as well as individual bushes. The foraging takes place in shallow water. Outside the breeding season the spoonbill is also very frequently observed in marine coasts or in dunes and salt marshes.
Way of life
The spoonbill breeds sociable in marshes, quarries and meadows, in Africa on rocky islands. The nests he lays low in the reeds, but sometimes he also selects trees or even rock cliffs.
In part, Löffler colonies are also in the vicinity of large gull colonies. These provide an additional source of food (eggs, chicks), while the gulls do not dare address to the young spoonbills.
It feeds on fish, frogs and other water creatures. In the Wadden Sea the spoonbill is frequently observed in food intake by " strain ". Here, the bird swings his head back and forth, where it filters its food out of the shallow water.
Stock
The IUCN estimates that the total stock on the spoonbill 58000-59000 animals. The species is considered " not at risk ".
In Europe, the spoonbill was always limited to individual, some widely separated breeding areas. This went in the course of the 20th century partly through Building and Drainage lost. At the Lake Neusiedl example played a decline in grazing and desiccation of the shallow-water areas a role. In the Netherlands, the population decline is attributed to the pesticide pollution of coastal waters, in Woldadelta to a contamination of food waters. Also permanently high water levels lead to a decrease of Löffler populations.
The decline in stocks Löffler holds partly to this day. In Greece, Albania, Romania, Ukraine and the European part of Russia are the above- mentioned factors are of importance. In parallel, there are also positive developments. How does the stock example in Hungary significantly, with an increase in fish ponds plays a role. When practiced in Hungary fishing industry the ponds are drained in the spring, which has led to an improvement in the food supply for the spoonbill. At the Lake Neusiedl in the meantime extinct breeding colonies have been resettled after a water rise again led to more extensive areas of shallow water. After a partial exponential growth of population in the Netherlands, Lower Saxony, and in 1996 also occupied Denmark in the same year. Since 1999 there is also in Schleswig -Holstein breeding birds. In 2003 there was in Germany a total of 103 breeding pairs. 2001 Great Britain was repopulated by spoonbills and a first brood in 2002 there were in Belgium.