When we travel or hike, I bird when possible and try to involve my family in the pursuit as reasonably as I can without making the activity central to our journeys. Usually, though, I manage my birding-related affairs fairly well. Moore Sanctuary, much to my wife’s chagrin. I’m not always successful, of course - I sometimes return too late from a long day of birding or dally a bit on our family walks around Edith L. Profile by Ryan Call: Being married to a non-birder, I strive to make birding as easy and as convenient as possible for my family. The picture was taken at Smith Oaks Rookery, High Island TX, Galveston County on April 4, 2018. The birds in the image are Roseatte Spoonbills. Smith on our Board of Advisors, and appeared in the Galveston Daily News on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. The Mating Spoonbills photo won 1st place in the Galveston FeatherFest first week contest. The rookery at Houston Audubon's Smith Oaks Sanctuary is a great place to observe Roseate Spoonbills. Roseate spoonbills are social birds, spending much of their time with other spoonbills and water birds, and nesting in colonies alongside ibises, storks, cormorants, herons, and egrets. Sensitive nerve endings along the bill's length detect vibrations and signal the bill to close quickly on the prey swept inside the spoon. Roseate Spoonbills forage by sweeping their bills in rapid arcs from side to side to stir shallow water into little whirlpools, which suck in aquatic organisms such as shrimp, small fish and aquatic invertebrates. In addition to their striking color and unusually shaped bill, the bird's odd feeding behavior, known as "head-swinging", also draws attention. Fortunately, Roseate Spoonbills were able to recolonize areas along the Gulf Coast, rebuild populations and make an excellent recovery. Only 179 birds remained in Texas in 1920. The exotic looking bird was hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s by plume hunters seeking their feathers for the millinery trade. Juveniles are mostly white with pale pink wings and a white feathered head. Notes: Often mistaken for a flamingo, the Roseate Spoonbill has pink body feathers pink legs a white neck and back an unfeathered, greenish head red shoulders an orange tail and a long spoon-shaped bill. Seasonal Occurrence: Common in all seasons. Family: ( Threskiornithidae) Ibises and Spoonbills
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