A white waterbird with long legs and a spoon-shaped bill.
It has white plumage and a long bill that widens into a spatula at the tip. It flies with its neck extended.
At Yancheng in Jiangsu, China, Eurasian Spoonbills used both natural wetlands and managed waterbodies in winter. Xu and colleagues surveyed the reserve’s core and buffer zones in 12 surveys over the 2021–22 and 2022–23 winters, recording 2,813 sightings in total. Reed ponds and seepweed marshes accounted for about 60% of records; aquaculture ponds and farm channels made up about 40, and feeding was observed in these artificial wetlands.
Used sites averaged just 7.4 ± 0.3 cm deep; water depth was the strongest variable in the habitat-use models. Daytime behavior records were 68.6% feeding and 31.4% resting. Reed ponds were an exception: feeding made up 49.6% of behavior records there. At Yancheng, a wintering spoonbill’s habitat ranged from natural marsh to working ponds and channels.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global species-level assessment
The 2025 IUCN global assessment lists the Eurasian Spoonbill as Least Concern (LC), with an increasing population trend and an estimated 52,800–63,900 mature individuals; it was assessed on 5 June 2025. The profile records a recovery plan, systematic monitoring, conservation sites identified throughout the range and occurrence in at least one protected area. Winter surveys at Yancheng, China, in 2021–23 found spoonbills feeding in natural and artificial wetlands. The authors recommend conserving natural wetlands while managing water depth and human activity in artificial habitats. The Red List summary covers the global species; the field study describes habitat use at one reserve over two winters.