Platalea leucorodia
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), or common spoonbill, is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, native to Europe, Africa and Asia. The species is partially migratory with the more northerly breeding populations mostly migrating south for the winter.
The Eurasian spoonbill was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Platalea leucorodia. Linnaeus cited works by earlier authors including the description and illustration by the English naturalist Eleazar Albin that was published in 1734. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Europe but restricted it to Sweden in 1761. The genus name Platalea is Latin and means "broad", referring to the distinctive shape of the bill; the specific epithet leucorodia is from Ancient Greek leukerodios meaning "spoonbill", itself derived from leukos, "white" and erodios "heron". A molecular phylogenetic study of the spoonbills based on mitochondrial DNA found that the Eurasian spoonbill is sister taxon to a clade containing the royal and black-faced spoonbills. In England it was traditionally known as... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 3 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 6 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 9 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 10 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 11 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 12 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 14 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 16 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 17 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 19 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Agra | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Rabat | 🇲🇦 Morocco | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 8 | Rajkot | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Spoonbill sighting in Monfragüe National Park on a given day, based on 576 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 81st most-seen of the 205 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, March and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Spoonbill in Monfragüe National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September, the lowest month.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eurasian Spoonbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Eurasian Spoonbill sightings, Monfragüe National Park ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Doñana National Park (Spain, about 60%), Hortobágy National Park (Hungary, about 50%) and Keoladeo National Park (India, about 50%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eurasian Spoonbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Monfragüe National Park (576 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
