Royal spoonbill - New Zealand Bird of the Week

Royal spoonbills are tall, white birds that with their fabulous head plumage during the breeding season, are some of New Zealand's most dignified birds, also being a fairly recent arrival in the country. I hope you enjoy.
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Sources:
teara.govt.nz/en/wetland-bird...
www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/speci...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_s...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threski...
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#NewZealandBirdoftheWeek

[@generaldissatisfaction5397]

I like how they self introduced into NZ from Australia.

[@mrsanity]

They had probably been doing so for centuries or more previously to the oldest recorded event, but with the migrants being quickly dispatched by either the Maoris or the native predators. Once we had 'europeanised' the islands sufficiently to remove/neutralise those previous threats, there wasn't anything to stop further growth.

[@gandalfandferg280]

Like half our birds

[@bloodandempire]

New Zealand is as far away as you can get from where I am but I love birdwatching vicariously through this channel. So many amazing species. ❤️

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Wow, thank you! Hopefully you can visit at some point. :)

[@chazsaw]

These birds nest near my parents' house, I am always pleased to see them :)

[@chazsaw]

@KAHANU ERMEYAS-TULU no Otakau ahau.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Great location indeed!

[@Alberad08]

Thanks a lot for creating & sharing! Isn't it amazing that we can observe, within our own lifetimes (o.k. I'm now 57) how an organism conquers a new area of our planet without human collaboration?

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

It's a very cool thing to experience. Evolution in action!

[@DinoMan99000]

That is one crazy bird. Here in the U.S. we have the roseate spoonbill, which is a very pretty bird. I find this spoonbill to give me crazy looking vulture vibs. Defiantly a sick look. The fact that they are self introduced is very interesting. Kinda cool how we have witnessed a animal expanding their range in this way.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

It is indeed!

[@carlosandleon]

Aaaah, the more sophisticated cousin of the infamous bin chicken.

[@electricc437]

So, we have shoebill. Now we have spoonbill. What's next? Forkbill? knifebill?

[@chazsaw]

There is the extinct adzebill, if that helps your list?

[@electricc437]

@@chazsaw Close enough 😂 Interesting bird btw.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

The adzebill is extinct, but the wrybill is still endemic to NZ

[@animalswithtomek4188]

NZ birds are amazing!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

I agree!

[@minted1841]

What a magnificent bird. Striking!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Many thanks!

[@dynamosaurusimperious6341]

Royal Spoonbill look like a very mythical bird

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Indeed!

[@erichtomanek4739]

What is more interesting is that there is a vacant niche for them that they are successfully occupying. Was there a bird (or mammal! or reptile!), now extinct, or greatly reduced in numbers, that did?

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Not that I know of. They just became another part of the wading bird fauna.

[@elanzucchetti9477]

It's not unheard of that species become succesfully established on their own without causing disturbances to the native ecosystems. Other examples I can think of are cattle egrets in the americas which (if I remember correctly) arrived on their own in the 18 somethings and collared doves and little egrets in europe, or even just the little egret in the UK which arrived in the 1980s. They just managed to fit theirselves in in the new habitats they reached.

[@harleywillis3929]

Like always these vids lighten up me day

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

I'm glad they do. :)

[@davidgrech4574]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful insights and hope you know how much I appreciate your videos 🙏❤️

[@zimtak6418]

Something tells me the semi-spinosaurus "Rudy" from the movie Ice Age (3?) was inspired from this bird.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Similar!

[@poisontoad8007]

I live just up the road from a colony off Aroha Island near Kerikeri 😊

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

So cool!

[@markanxrath1369]

Damn nature you beautiful

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Most definitely!

[@danking9936]

If anyone is interested, a great place to see these birds is the southern branch of Porirua Harbour, where I've photographed them a couple of times.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Excellent place!

[@commanderhurst3283]

Reminds me of a dinochirus. The feathered duckbill-like dinosaur in Mongolia...

[@Carl-Ernst-Otto-Kunze]

Great content! 👏

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Glad you think so!

[@philbydoodle6199]

I’ve never seen one YET

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

You can see them around the Otago area. A lot of good lake river areas there.

[@philbydoodle6199]

@@HenrythePaleoGuy I’ll be back visiting a mate in that area soon,thanks bud ,always enjoy your uploads

[@t-r-e-x452]

So they are relatively newcomers to NZ, then.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Yes indeed. If I was making this series before the point they arrived, they would not have been included.

[@jamesagwe2981]

Could you do a video on the shoebill stork?

[@bloodandempire]

New Zealand does not have shoe-billed storks though.......................

[@eviljoel]

He only does New Zealand birds.

[@KhanMann66]

Would like to see him expand beyond New Zealand once he’s done.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

We'll have to see...

[@lookinforladies]

I dont even know this animal existed

[@Brontosore]

Deinocheirus

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Very similar indeed!

[@yoboibeerus1387]

היא בכתה.

[@flamencoprof]

Negative information is still important. I have never seen this bird in Auckland

[@viomusardathefluffysealgas9347]

It looks like a dinosaur

[@chazsaw]

I mean, to be fair, technically it is :P

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

You are correct there. :)

[@viomusardathefluffysealgas9347]

@@HenrythePaleoGuy I think what makes it look like a dinosaur is the shape of the beak and that the face doesn't have feathers and looks kind of scaly

[@wendychavez5348]

I keep comparing them to pelicans-- which they clearly are not, though are they somehow related? You may cover that later in the video--reasons to watch the whole thing! As though the lilt in your voice didn't hold me captive lol.

[@elanzucchetti9477]

Yes they are part of the same "order" of birds, the pelecaniformes a group which also includes herons (ardeidae), the shoebill (balaenicipetidae), the hammerkop (scopidae), pelicans (pelecanidae), and of course the spoonbills own family the threskiornithidae, which also includes the ibises. I put the word order in quotes because the linnean taxonomy is getting more and more outdated as time goes on. The proper word for a group of organisms should be clade, but as of now it isn't incorrect to continue using order, family, class etc..

[@justedd1774]

Deinocheirus Deinocheirus

[@chairshoe81]

ive enever understand why at the end of these videos he says "you are now able to vote for the _____" , theres only one choice lol, is tthat the joke?

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

You can vote on the community tab of the channel to vote out of the given three birds available. :)