By Mariano Gómez · Updated on 11 October 2026

Birds

Eurasian Spoonbill, the white wader with the spoon-shaped bill

Platalea leucorodiaHear its song0:36

Photo gallery of the Eurasian Spoonbill

Identification of the Eurasian Spoonbill

This is a wading bird unmistakable for its large size and its overall white colouring. Its peculiar bill stands out, long and flattened at the tip like a spoon, the feature that gave rise to its common name. During the breeding period, adults develop a crest of hanging feathers on the nape and a yellowish collar on the breast, and the yellow patch on the bill intensifies and becomes larger. In flight they show a slender silhouette because they carry the neck stretched out.

Adult

• White plumage and long bill with the tip flattened like a spoon.
• In the breeding season, crest of hanging feathers on the nape and yellowish collar.

Young bird

• Completely white, with pinkish legs and bill.
• The tips of the outermost primaries are black.

Habitat and distribution of the Eurasian Spoonbill

It is distributed across the Palearctic region, although in a fragmented way, from Europe to Japan, taking in North Africa, the Persian Gulf, India, Sri Lanka and southern China, although in many of these regions it appears only as a winter visitor. In Europe it nests only in the Netherlands, Spain and France and, in smaller numbers, in Portugal, Hungary, Austria, Denmark, Romania, Russia and Turkey.

In Spain it is distributed across western Andalusia (Doñana, the Bay of Cádiz and the Odiel marshes), the Extremaduran floodplains of the Guadiana and the Tagus and, more scattered, at different points in the western half of the Peninsula, such as the Tablas de Daimiel, in Ciudad Real, Villafáfila and the Ricobayo reservoir, in Zamora, La Nava, in Palencia, and some sites on the Cantabrian-Atlantic coast, such as the Guernica and Arosa estuaries and above all the Santoña marshes, through which birds from the French and Dutch colonies migrate on their way to Africa. It is the subspecies «leucorodia». It is rare in the Balearics and more regular, but scarce, in the Canaries.

It prefers shallow wetlands, generally coastal and saline, such as marshes, deltas and estuaries, with bottoms of fine sand or mud and appreciable tidal changes. It usually avoids very stagnant or very turbulent waters and lake environments with abundant submerged vegetation.

Most of the western European population migrates to the wetlands of Mauritania and Senegal to spend the winter, but a small proportion of the Iberian population only makes dispersive movements through wetlands near its colonies, so it is also seen in winter. Birds from central and eastern Europe winter in Tunisia and Sudan after passing through the wetlands of Italy and Greece.

Etymology of the Eurasian Spoonbill

According to Wikipedia, Linnaeus described it in 1758 with the name it still bears today, «Platalea leucorodia». The genus «Platalea» is a Latin word meaning «broad» and alludes to the shape of the bill, and the epithet «leucorodia» comes from ancient Greek «leukerodios», «spoonbill», from «leukos», «white», and «erodios», «heron». In other languages it is called «becplaner comú» in Catalan, «cullereiro común» in Galician, «mokozabal zuria» in Basque and «Eurasian spoonbill» in English¹.

Population of the Eurasian Spoonbill

The 2021 European Red List of Birds estimates the population of the Eurasian Spoonbill at between 23,800 and 36,300 mature individuals, with an increasing trend, above all in Denmark, Germany, France, Portugal and the Netherlands. In Spain an average of 1,437 pairs a year has been estimated between the last national census, in 2007, and 2018. Andalusia holds more than 90 % of the Spanish breeding population and between 40 and 60 % of the European one; Doñana is the site with the most pairs, around 62 % of the national total. Despite the long-term increase, since 2012 the worst breeding data of the 21st century have been recorded in Doñana, with a net reduction of 50 % in the breeding population. The wintering population has been estimated at some 1,866 birds, and is concentrated mainly in the provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz, the Arosa estuary, the Santoña marshes and the Ebro delta.

Among its main threats stand out the overexploitation of groundwater at its main breeding sites, such as Doñana, climate change, the drying of lagoons, sea-level rise, human disturbance near the colonies, pollution by heavy metals and pesticides, eutrophication and the offshore wind farms installed on migratory corridors.

Nest of the Eurasian Spoonbill

It sets its nest on large trees, such as cork oaks, pines or eucalyptus, on small trees, such as tamarisks or willows, or at ground level on low marsh vegetation. It is a heap of branches, rushes and plant remains some 50 to 70 centimetres in diameter, and both the female and the male take part in building it.

Courtship and breeding of the Eurasian Spoonbill

It is a gregarious species that settles in the same colony for successive years, often in the company of herons and White Storks. The breeding period usually begins in April or May, although in favourable conditions it can start earlier. It makes a single clutch per season, of three or four white eggs with brown spots laid at three-day intervals, and may make a replacement one if the first fails. Both sexes incubate for 23–25 days and care for the chicks, which hatch covered in white down and will not be fully feathered until 45–50 days. The young, semi-nidicolous, become independent gradually and reach sexual maturity at three or four years.

Diet of the Eurasian Spoonbill

Its diet is made up of aquatic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, molluscs, annelids and aquatic insects and their larvae, and also amphibians or small fish. It feeds in a group, wading over the substrate while moving its head from side to side until it detects possible prey with the tip of its extremely sensitive bill.

Curious facts about the Eurasian Spoonbill

It is a wader unmistakable for its large size, its white colour and its habit of wading the shallow bottoms of wetlands while probing the mud with its flattened bill¹. Spain holds some of the most important colonies in western Europe. Its longevity is out of line depending on the source: AnAge gives 30 years and 1 month in captivity and EURING lists a bird ringed in the Netherlands that lived 41 years and 6 months.

The Eurasian Spoonbill in Cabañeros

The habitat pages of this website do not mention it, and we have not found any other published source on it in the Park. GBIF.org records 19 observations of the Eurasian Spoonbill in Cabañeros and its surroundings.

Where to see the Eurasian Spoonbill in Cabañeros

In Cabañeros and its surroundings, throughout the year, in wetlands and on the shores of shallow water.

When

All year in Spain, although most of the European population migrates to Africa to spend the winter.

What time

By day, while it feeds in a group.

Where

In shallow wetlands, with bottoms of mud or fine sand.

What to look for

Look for the flattened spoon-shaped bill and the white plumage; young birds have pinkish legs and bill.

Videos of the Eurasian Spoonbill

Similar species

Western Great Egret

Ardea alba

How to tell them apart

It is not clearly similar¹. It is another white wader of wetlands, of the same order as the spoonbill (Pelecaniformes).

Photo: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0

Grey Heron

Ardea cinerea

How to tell them apart

It is not clearly similar¹. It is another large wader that frequents the same wetlands and belongs to the same order as the spoonbill (Pelecaniformes).

Photo: Donald Hobern from Copenhagen, Denmark, CC BY 2.0

Other birds

Bibliography

• Jiménez García-Herrera, José. (2017). Aves de Cabañeros y su entorno. Madrid, Spain: Ecohábitat.
• SEO Birdlife - Sociedad Española de Ornitología
• https://es.wikipedia.org/
• Hume, Rob. (2016). Guía de campo de las Aves de España y Europa. Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Omega