Romfilatelia, the company specialized in issuing and trading Romanian postage stamps, introduces into circulation the philatelic issue Protected Birds – The Eurasian Spoonbill, WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature).
The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is a water bird of passage, belonging to the Ciconiiformes order, having the size of a stork, with white feathers, long neck and legs. Its beak is flattened towards its tip, like a spoon. Both its beak and its legs are black, with a crest on the head. During the coupling period, yellow spots appear on the adults’ chest and beak tip.
They live in colonies, separately from other birds, and they make their nest on the ground, in trees or in rush-beds. They feed on small fish and insects.
It is the most widespread species, living in some African areas, in a large part of Europe, in Asia and we can even find it in Japan. In Romania, these birds can be admired during summer, when they nestle in the Danube Delta.
The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is protected on the entire European continent.
The four postage stamps of the philatelic issue, each with a face value of Lei 0.80, represent exemplars of Eurasian Spoonbills in various hypostases, such as:
- spoonbill feeding his babies;
- spoonbills flying;
- spoonbills fishing;
- pair of spoonbills (close-up)
The issue is completed of 4 maxicards.