Limpkin, Ritch Grissem Memorial Wetlands at Viera, Viera Florida

Limpkins are strange, ancient, highly specialized birds of the Florida swamps and marshes. (They also range down through Central American and into South America, but they only reach the US in Florida.) Though they resemble Herons and Egrets, and Ibis even more, they have no relatives in the bird world. They are specifically adapted to eat the Apple Snails that enhabit Florida waters. Their beak is a tool that is not good for much else, but is incredibly efficient at finding and eating the snails. It is sensitive enough to allow the Limpkin to find the snails in the mud under the shallow water at the edges of the marsh by touch, and its shape, tweezer-like and often with a right curve, allows them to extract the snail without breaking the shell. You see fewer and fewer Limpkins in Florida as their habitat is built over or becomes impossibly polluted and Apple Snail populations fall, but I heard from a native Floridian that there is a new invasive species of a more resilient and slightly larger snail moving into the marshes that Limpkins find appetizing. Maybe we will see resurgence in the population. This was the only Limpkin I could find at Viera Wetlands (Ritch Grissem Memorial Wetlands at Viera) yesterday. I generally see several at least. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 160. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.