Royal spoonbills often roost on the former Imlay wharf in the Whanganui River.PHOTOS/ ORMOND TORR
Royal spoonbills often roost on the former Imlay wharf in the Whanganui River.PHOTOS/ ORMOND TORR
Stately royal spoonbills used to be a novelty around Wanganui but are becoming more common.
There was even one foraging on its own along the riverbank near the city's i-SITE on two mornings recently.
Wanganui bird watcher Ormond Torr has been photographing spoonbills for years. He said the occasional onehad been spotted since the 1960s, but numbers had slowly increased.
Now there are birds that stay here for months every year, but breed elsewhere. He estimates about 10 are long-term residents.
There are also birds that pass through on the way to somewhere else. They can bring numbers up to about 25 for short periods.
The stayers can usually be found in the Whanganui River estuary, but have also been seen at the mouth of the Whangaehu River, Kaitoke Lake and the lagoon at Turakina Beach.
A small group used to have a favourite riverside roost in an unmown area downstream from Pitzac in the city. They moved away when Wanganui District Council mowed the grass and ran a footpath past their perching site.
These days the remains of a wharf off the Imlay meatworks is their preferred roost. It's farther from people and other danger.
Mr Torr has watched the birds marching along in a line to fish in shallow water. He said most of what they caught was too small to see, but he had seen them swallow small flounder.
Royal spoonbills were first sighted in New Zealand in 1861, at Castlepoint, according to the nzbirdsonline website. Sightings became more frequent, and the Australian immigrants are gradually colonising the country. By 1996 there were nearly 1000 here.
They were first known to breed in New Zealand in 1949, and their first breeding place was at Okarito on the West Coast, near where the white herons breed. Now there are many more places where they gather to breed - including Parengarenga in Northland, Green Island near Dunedin, the Wairau Estuary and a rock stack off Kapiti Island.
They eat fish, shrimps, insects and frogs.
Their usual food is fish, shrimps, insects and frogs, caught by sweeping their sensitive beaks sideways under water. They prefer fresh water to salt, and in New Zealand are usually found in estuaries.
There are six spoonbill species worldwide. Royal spoonbills are the only ones that breed in New Zealand.
