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Roseate Spoonbill
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About This Image
The Roseate Spoonbill is found along the south Florida coast from the Florida Keys north to Tampa, with some populations in northeastern Florida and the eastern coast of Texas down to Mexico. A major period of decline for the spoonbill occurred in the early 1800's when the wings of this beautiful creature were made into fans, a "regular article of trade" in St. Augustine, according to John Audubon. The millinery or "hat trade" also took a heavy toll on the spoonbill in the late 1800's. Although their feathers were never in as great of demand as the plumes of the egrets because they faded, spoonbills were still slaughtered along with many plume birds, and their numbers declined. The establishment of Everglades National Park in 1947 seemed to have a positive affect on south Florida's spoonbill population, which began reusing nesting sites that hadn't been occupied since the late 1800's.
Information from http://www.nps.gov/ever/eco/spoonbil.htm
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