Eurasian spoonbill
Platalea leucorodia Linnaeus, 1758
The Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), also called the spoonbill, white spoonbill or European spoonbill, is a bird in the family Threskiornithidae and order Pelecaniformes. It is a medium-sized bird with a representative adult body mass of 1.868 kg and a wingspan of 1.3 m.
Quick facts about the Eurasian spoonbill
This partially migratory wetland bird is a carnivore in the aquatic predator diet category and forages in the terrestrial stratum. It lays 3.5 eggs per clutch in one clutch per year, incubates them for 24.5 days, reaches sexual maturity at 3 years, and is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.
- Weight
- 1.39 kg – 1.87 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 1.3 msrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 28.3 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 30.1 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 24.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.5src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the Eurasian spoonbill?
Photos of the Eurasian spoonbill
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the Eurasian spoonbill live?
Not recorded
What is the Eurasian spoonbill?
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.
From the Wikipedia article “Eurasian spoonbill” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eurasian_spoonbill&oldid=1382046182), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the Eurasian spoonbill sound like?
Is the Eurasian spoonbill endangered?
The Eurasian spoonbill is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the Eurasian spoonbill classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPelecaniformes
- familyThreskiornithidae
- genusPlatalea
- SpeciesPlatalea leucorodia Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Platalea leucerodia, Platalea leucordia
Other names and names in other languages (126)
- European spoonbillEnglish
- SpoonbillEnglish
- White spoonbillEnglish
- أبو ملعقةArabic
- أبو ملعقة الأبيضArabic
- أبو ملعقة الأوراسيArabic
- paletónAsturian
- ƏrsindimdikAzerbaijani
- КөрәкморонBashkir
- КолпіцаBelarusian
- КолпiцаBelarusian
- ЛопатаркаBulgarian
- Бяла лопатаркаBulgarian
- Spanell wennBreton
- BecplanerCatalan
- becplaner comúCatalan
- Ахаль колпицаChuvash
- Adiy kolpitsa quşuCrimean Tatar
- kolpík bílýCzech
- llwybigWelsh
- LlwybigauWelsh
- skestorkDanish
- LöfflerGerman
- LöffelreiherGerman
- Dheyfaiy DhooniDivehi
- ΧουλιαρομύταGreek
- Ευρασιατική ΧουλιαρομύταGreek
- Eŭrazia plataleoEsperanto
- ordinara plataleoEsperanto
- Espátula comúnSpanish
- luitsnokk-iibisEstonian
- mokozabal zuriBasque
- کفچه نوکPersian
- kapustahaikaraFinnish
- SpónnevFaroese
- Spatule blancheFrench
- LeppelbekWestern Frisian
- Corr leathadachIrish
- corr leitheadachIrish
- Corr leitheadach EoráiseachIrish
- leitheadachScottish Gaelic
- Gob cathainnScottish Gaelic
- CullereiroGalician
- Gob lheanManx
- ચમચોGujarati
- כפןHebrew
- כפן לבןHebrew
- כפן אבי-כףHebrew
- Bijela žličarkaCroatian
- Čaplja žličarkaCroatian
- kanalasgémHungarian
- Տարգալակտուց (Targalaktuts)Armenian
- FlatnefurIcelandic
- spatolaItalian
- spatola biancaItalian
- ヘラサギJapanese
- ჟეროGeorgian
- ПэхьэнцэбзуKabardian
- Час хылkjh
- ЖалбағайKazakh
- ಚಮಚಕೊಕ್ಕುKannada
- ಸ್ಪೂನ್ ಬಿಲ್Kannada
- ಚಮಚ ಕೊಕ್ಕಿನ ಹಕ್ಕಿKannada
- 노랑부리저어새Korean
- DevkevçîKurdish
- Gelvyn loCornish
- LäffelerLuxembourgish
- LäffelräerLuxembourgish
- girnovėLithuanian
- paprastoji girnovėLithuanian
- karošknābisLatvian
- Kotuku-ngutupapaMāori
- чапја лажичаркаMacedonian
- ചട്ടുക കൊക്കൻMalayalam
- ചട്ടുകക്കൊക്കൻMalayalam
- PalettaMaltese
- Халбаган хушутMongolian
- Цагаагчин халбагатMongolian
- चमचाMarathi
- चमच्याMarathi
- चम्चाठुँडे साँवरीNepali
- lepelaarDutch
- skeistorkNorwegian Nynorsk
- skjestorkNorwegian
- PalotierPicard
- warzęchaPolish
- warzęcha (zwyczajna)Polish
- یوریشیائی سپوونبلWestern Panjabi
- colhereiro-comumPortuguese
- ColhereiroPortuguese
- colhereiro-eurasiáticoPortuguese
- colhereiro-europeuPortuguese
- Ibis dal bec platRomansh
- lopătarRomanian
- КосарьRussian
- колпицаRussian
- обыкновенная колпицаRussian
- КолпицяRusyn
- SpoađđoháigirNorthern Sami
- අභිජනන නේවාසිකSinhala
- lyžičiar bielySlovak
- žličarkaSlovenian
- Navadna žličarkaSlovenian
- skjeplugaAlbanian
- çafka sqeplugëAlbanian
- Çapka sqeplugëAlbanian
- KašičarSerbian
- КашичарSerbian
- skedstorkSwedish
- கரண்டிவாயன்Tamil
- KarandivayanTamil
- นกช้อนหอยหน้าขาวThai
- นกปากช้อนหน้าขาวThai
- kasikciTurkish
- Bayağı kaşıkçıTurkish
- kaşıkçıTurkish
- ШопулакхайTuvinian
- КосарUkrainian
- КолпицяUkrainian
- косар білийUkrainian
- Косар блідо-рожевийUkrainian
- Косаря блідо-рожевогоUkrainian
- Cò thìa Châu âuVietnamese
- LepelaerZeelandic
- 白琵鷺Chinese
- 白琵鹭Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the Eurasian spoonbill
Other species in the same genus Platalea.
Roseate spoonbill
Platalea ajaja
Black-faced spoonbill
Platalea minor
African spoonbill
Platalea alba
Royal spoonbill
Platalea regia
Yellow-billed spoonbill
Platalea flavipes
CompareEurasian spoonbill vs Roseate spoonbillEurasian spoonbill vs Black-faced spoonbillEurasian spoonbill vs African spoonbillEurasian spoonbill vs Royal spoonbill
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the Eurasian spoonbill?
The Eurasian spoonbill is a bird in the family Threskiornithidae, order Pelecaniformes.
How heavy is the Eurasian spoonbill?
Its representative adult body mass is 1.868 kg, and the lowest value reported by our sources is 1.39 kg.
What does the Eurasian spoonbill eat?
It is a carnivore in the aquatic predator diet category.
What habitat does the Eurasian spoonbill use?
Its habitat is wetland, and it forages in the terrestrial stratum.
Is the Eurasian spoonbill endangered?
No. It is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the Eurasian spoonbill live?
Its lifespan is 28.25 years, with values up to 30.1 years reported by our sources.
How many eggs does the Eurasian spoonbill lay?
It lays 3.5 eggs per clutch and has one clutch per year, with an incubation period of 24.5 days.
Who named the Eurasian spoonbill?
The scientific name Platalea leucorodia was given by Linnaeus, 1758.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/eurasian-spoonbill
“Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/eurasian-spoonbill.
@misc{eurasian_spoonbill_2026,
title = {Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/eurasian-spoonbill},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}