Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia)
About the Royal Spoonbill
The royal spoonbill (Platalea regia), also known as the black-billed spoonbill lives in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. (In New Zealand, it is also known by the Māori name kōtuku ngutupapa.) It has also been recorded as a vagrant in New Caledonia. It is one of 6 spoonbill species world wide. The royal spoonbill lives in wetlands and feeds on crustaceans, fish and small insects by sweeping its bill from side to side. It always flies with its head extended. Widespread throughout its large range, the royal spoonbill is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 7 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-ND · 1 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Eurasian SpoonbillPlatalea leucorodiarecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.