Orange spoonbill in the Netherlands

This is a video of the orange spoonbill between white spoonbills on Texel island.

22 June 2008.

After earlier news from the Netherlands about orange animals at the time when the Dutch orange-shirted national football team were playing in the European championship; now this from Dutch daily Noordhollands Dagblad (translated):

Ever since Thursday, there is an orange spoonbill on Texel. The animal was seen at the Schorren, a nature reserve on the outside of the Wadden sea dike, managed by Natuurmonumenten.

This is not any misplaced joke by football fans; this is a freak of nature. Spoonbills eat shrimps, which contain an orange pinkish substance. Usually, this pigment is neutralized in spoonbills; obviously, not with this bird, however. This makes the pigment become apparent in the feathers. Other shrimp eating birds, like ibis, flamingos, and also American [roseate] spoonbills, as a rule have a pink or orange colour.

If you are lucky, you can see this bird ‘live’ on the website www.beleefdelente.nl between the white spoonbills. This was made possible by a webcam put by Natuurmonumenten a few weeks ago at De Schorren.

Maybe now that the Dutch soccer team are out of the championship after they lost the match to Russia, that spoonbill will revert to the normal white colour.