Kotuku-ngutupapa - Royal spoonbill - Platalea regia

Photographed on Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, Canterbury, New Zealand.

The gull-billed tern is a large, heavily built and thick-billed tern, with characteristically long legs. The back and upper wings are a very pale grey while the tail, body and under wings are white. The upper wings may have dark grey feathers on the outer leading edge of the primaries and there is a dark grey trailing edge to the lower surface of the outer primaries too. This darkens and becomes more conspicuous as the feathers wear. Adults in breeding plumage have a solid black cap from the base of the bill extending to just below the eye and well down the nape. In nonbreeding plumage there is a very large black eye patch and the crown and nape are lightly streaked or washed with grey. Sub-adult birds have a head pattern like a non-breeding adult but also have a more extensive dark bar along the trailing edge of the wing and may have other dark markings on upperwing, but the heavily speckled backs of newly fledged birds are unlikely to be seen in New Zealand. The bill, legs and eye are black - www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz

 

Done