THE African spoonbill is distributed in Africa south of the Sahara and Madagascar, while in South Africa it is absent from the dry west.
Locally it is common.
They are usually silent with a few guttural croaks, grunts, quacks and may clatter their bill softly.
Spoonbills like shallow inland waters (dams and marshes), and less often coastal lagoons and estuaries. Being solitary or gregarious, they forage by wading slowly, their bill partly or wholly submerged and sweeping from side to side. They also probe in the mud.
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Their flight is graceful with quick, shallow wingbeats, often in flocks in a V formation. They are rather shy and spend long periods on one leg with their head tucked into back feathers. The African spoonbill enjoys roosting communally in trees and reedbeds at night.
Their food preference is small fish and invertebrates.
Breeding takes place from July to October in KZN. They lay two to four white to pale buff eggs in a nest which is a flattish platform of sticks or reeds on rocky islets or partly submerged trees.
Incubation is 25 to 29 days and nestlings remain for 21 to 29 days. They are independent after 40 days.
The Zulu name is isixulamascle and in Afrikaans lepelaar.
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