Utensil Birds #2

Back by popular demand, it's the second installment of Utensil Birds.

Today's Utensil Bird is PAIL-billed woodpecker....

Pail/pale-billed woodpecker photographed at Tikal, Peten, Guatemala in February 2007.

What?

My producer is speaking to me over my headset and telling me that it's P-A-L-E -billed woodpecker. Not P-A-I-L. How awkward...

OK. How about roseate SPOONbill?

Dig the crazy spoon-shaped bill on this flying spoonbill.

Here are two images I took in Florida in January at Merritt Island NWR. When you're a new bird watcher, flipping through the field guide, the roseate spoonbill is one of those species that makes you gasp and wonder. Is there REALLY a bird like that?

Well they're even better in real life. One of my most-wanted-to-photograph-well birds is the roseate spoonbill. Not much of a chance here in SE Ohio. Though with global warming it might just be a matter of waiting.... Sorry, bad joke.

The spoon-shaped bill is wide and flat. Perfect for straining yummy aquatic life out of swamp water but probably not very good for eating soup.

I'd love to get a photo of a roseate spoonbill perched next to a fork-tailed flycatcher, but what are the chances of that?

Worry not! I'll serve up another Utensil Bird soon.