Roseate Spoonbill in Florida

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I went to the local Rookery a couple weeks ago and took over a thousand snaps of all the birds and wildlife there. It's located on the same property as the Alligator Farm here in St. Augustine Florida.

Here's some of my favorites from the Roseate Spoonbills.

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Spoonbill FAQs:
While these are commoon in South America, they only reach the southern most states in the U.S.
They are 1 of only 6 species of spoonbills in the world.
They can live over 15 years.
They get their pink color from the Crustaceans and other invertebrates they eat that contain carotenoids which turns the pink color.
The juveniles are more pale pink than the adults.
The get up to 33 inches (86cm long, and up to 64 oz (1800g) in weight and can have a wingspan of over 51 inches (130 cm).

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Amazing how close they let the gators get.
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Here's the happy couple on their nest.
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That's it for this round. Stay tuned for even better pics of the egrets, wood storks and others coming soon!

For pics of the gators and location map, see the #worldmappin post here:
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@ksteem/alligator-farm-and-rookery-visit-in-st-augustine-florida

amazingnature outdoors outdoorlife photography nature featheredfriends birding wildlife florida birds
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18 comments
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Good afternoon, dear friend @ksteem

What beautiful birds! I love the unique shape of their beaks and the color combination of their feathers. I didn't know their color had anything to do with their diet.

Have a great afternoon!

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Thank you. I just learned that myself while pulling a few facts for the post. Always interesting to learn something new!

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We appreciate your work and your publication has been hand selected by the geography curation team on behalf of the Amazing Nature AN Community. Keep up the good work!

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Great shots! It's honestly pretty crazy how quickly they build up. Especially with such large amounts of storage now. It's crazy to think that we used to be limited to 12, 24, or 36 exposures per roll!

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Right? I also took a few short video sequences that really ate up the memory. 40 Gigs of storage on the drive, lol.

And yes crazy indeed how we used to wait a week for processing and print to see how they came out. I for one, just love the "newer" digital formats and ability to self-correct/edit the shots and view instantly.

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Haha yeah, video is a whole different animal! I have a Digital 8 camera sitting in my office that I haven't been able to part with yet because I think what if I need it someday. Then I remember I have HD video on my phone...

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Hahaha, yes, I finally gave it up and threw an old Digital 8 camera away just 2 moves ago (2 years) after not pulling it out of box for over 15 years.

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I need to grow a pair and follow suit.

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This is too spectacular

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Thank you for that. I'm glad others can enjoy them almost as much as I did taking them!

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Greetings @ksteem ,

What a lovely post.....thank you for information and photographs of these splendid birds.

Kind Regards,

Bleujay

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Thank you for the kind words, and glad you enjoyed them!

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That's an interesting bird, I never seen those in a zoo here, great shots!

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Very interesting indeed, they are wild all over the place down here. Even this rookery is an open-air rookery, not enclosed.

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Amazing birdie. "He's looking at you, kidz!" (c)

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Wow, it's so beautiful, the beak is very unique.

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