A Roseate Spoonbill in the restrained palette of John James Audubon’s Birds of America: soft pale ground, the deep rose of the wing deepening to crimson at the shoulder, the grey spatulate bill lowered.

Platalea ajaja sweeps that bill side to side through shallow water, and wears a pink the southern coast gives almost nothing else. One of the strangest and most beautiful waders in the country.