Platalea ajajaPlatalea ajaja. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A roseate spoonbill takes flight from a lake north of Kennedy Space Center. Spoonbills are so named because of the broad spatulate tip on its long straight bill. They obtain food by sweeping their bills from side to side and scooping up whatever they encounter. The Center shares a boundary north, south and west with the 37,230 ha Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge also provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds.Source:
NASA media archive.
