ROYAL SPOONBILL (Platalea regia)

The royal spoonbill is an Australian bird arrivng here in NZ around 1949 where it took to breeding alongside the White heron (kotuku) at Okarito on the west coast (SI) They have taken to breeding in several places now and seemd to be pretty well settled into life in NZ.
They feed by walking up and down tidal flats swinging their head from side to side trapping food in the filters on each side of their bills.