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Limpkins

To make it easier to picture the limpkiin in the wild, browse the images below.

 

You will find limpkins (aramus guarauna) in warm freshwater marshes and swamps, often with tall reeds, as well as mangroves, in warm part of the Americas from Florida in the United States, southern Mexico, the Caribbean. Central American, northwestern Soutn America and South America east of the Andes mountains south to northern Argentina. In the Caribbean it also inhabits dry brushland. Essentially you will find limpkins where you find apple snails.

Their yellowish, long, heavy, downcurved bill has a darker tip and the bill is slightly open near, but not at, the tip, giving it a tweezers like action in removing apple snails from their shells. They are strong fliers on long, broad, rounded wings with their necks forward and their legs and feet trailing. They have a short tail and long toes that help them walk on floating vegetation when looking for apple snails and help make them good swimmers.

Snail Eater

A limpkin searches through the brush beside the boardwalk in tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Parki.

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Brown Against Gold

A limpkin wading the waters of Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Golden Waters

A limpkin searches for apple snails in the golden waters of Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Searching The Pads

A limpkin searches the pads in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park for apple snails or other tasty treats.

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Limpkin Chick

A limpkin chick following its mother in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Limpkin On The Hunt

A limpkin wades through a marshy area of Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park looking for apple snails or mussels as its next meal.

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Limpkin Overseer

Limpkin in dead tree on Starvation Lake in Lake Park in Hillsborough County, Florida.

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Brown Against Brown

A limpkin searches through the shallows along the Hillsborough River for apple snails and freshwater mussels in Tampa, Florida's John Sargent Park.

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Channeled Apple Snail Eggs

These apple snail eggs found in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park are from an invasive species called the channeled apple snail (pomacea canaliculata). Notice the bright pink color.

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Strolling Limpkins

A pair of limpkins walk through a marshy area of Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park looking for their favorite meal, apple snails.

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Limpkin

On a late September 2016 morning, a limpkin hopped up on a stump in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park to bathe in Hillsborough County sunshine.

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Wading Limpkin

A limpkin searches the shallows of the oxbow in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park for a meal on a warm November morning.

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