The spoonbill is an ibislike bird of the family Plataleidae, distinguished by the flat, dilated, spoonlike form of the bill. The species are five or six, in two genera widely distributed. The spoonbills of the Old World belong to the genus
Platalea and have the windpipe curiously convoluted. The spoonbills of the New World lack these convolutions, and are placed in a distinct genus,
Ajaja. The roseate spoonbill,
A. ajaja, the only American species, is abundant within the tropics.
