The Story
I photographed this Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) at the Nowen Bridge in Puerto Concordia, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. Its pink color comes from its diet, through the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin, and can range from pale pink to bright magenta depending on age, breeding condition and location. It is 71 to 86 centimeters long, with a wingspan of 120 to 133 centimeters. In flight it alternates groups of stiff, shallow wingbeats with glides. It is a social wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Roseate Spoonbill as Least Concern with a stable population.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) belongs to the family Threskiornithidae (Ibises and Spoonbills) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List