Young spoonbill

This spoonbill still has blackish legs as the young ones of its species do. Adult legs are pink or red as is the naked face. Spoonbill feathers are all white. The long, straight bill, spoon-shaped and grey with red edges, is a give-away in identifying this large bird becoming about 91 cm tall.

Spotted in the Kruger National Park from Mjejane across the Crocodile River, it was doing what spoonbills do: Wading slowly all by itself, probing the mud for delicacies as it goes. The niceties searched for include small fish and aquatic invertebrates. They are here, just be patient as the adults had shown.

Spoonbills may also be gregarious; there’s enough for all in the big rivers. Submerging all of its bill in sideways movements is tried and tested spoonbill lunching etiquette, but when you’re young you may not yet have mastered all the tricks.

After lunch or halfway through comes a long rest taken on one leg, the head tucked into back feathers right here by the water. One eye to be open occasionally for everybody else also gets hungry in the bush. Life is good in Africa (Maclean, 1993).