SPACEPHOTOS

(01/20/2000) -- In the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a roseate spoonbill searches the water for food. The birds, named for their brilliant pink color and paddle-shaped bill, feed in shallow water by swinging their bill back and forth, scooping up small fish and crustaceans. They typically inhabit mangroves on the coasts of southern Florida, Louisiana and Texas. The 92,000-acre refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center, is a habitat for more than 330 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds