ROYAL SPOONBILL platalea regia

This is a young spoonbill - I know because it does not have a yellow patch above its eye yet and the bill is still nice and smooth - with age it will get the yellow patch and the bill will become rough and rippled. Another Australian Vagrant to NZ around the late 1940's. I had a nice close encounter with it this morning on the ChCh Estuary.
rgds poo