Banded Roseate Spoonbill Sheds Light on Iconic Florida Species

Noticed! Wading Hen Analysis Specialist Shauna Sayers caught sight of an elusive band on the leg of a Roseate Spoonbill – a essential piece of knowledge that brings their motion, conduct, and inhabitants into focus.

Employees on the Audubon Everglades Analysis Station conduct weekly surveys of Roseate Spoonbill colonies in Florida Bay throughout nesting season to get nesting and common inhabitants information. Two of the colonies have been monitored for 30 years. In 2003, Audubon scientists started making use of leg bands to chicks in nests in Florida Bay and in Tampa Bay on the Richard T. Paul Alafia Financial institution Hen Sanctuary. In 2013, workers additionally started banding birds hatching from nests at St. Augustine Alligator Farm. In whole, Audubon has banded about 3,000 Roseate Spoonbills, that are thought-about an indicator species for Everglades ecosystem well being. Banding spoonbill chicks has led to a larger understanding of dispersal charges and behavioral constructions after nesting season within the Florida Bay is over.

Every band resight earns the spotter a particular sticker and contributes to essential inhabitants information for this iconic Florida species.

Sayer noticed this banded spoonbill in January on the Florida Keys Wild Hen Sanctuary. It was a very stunning time of day – sundown – and Sayers had adopted a path to a small pond. In line with the letters on the band, the male spoonbill had been banded on Pigeon Key in 2021, so he’s a minimum of six years outdated.

Have you ever seen a banded spoonbill? Audubon collects information from birders and naturalists by way of an internet kind. Tell us at: audubon.org/florida/spoonbills.

Anybody who submits a report in 2026 will obtain a limited-edition sticker.

Be aware: Give birds their house when attempting to learn a chicken band. Use binoculars or a protracted zoom lens to keep away from spooking or flushing the birds.