The white spoonbill, like other spoonbill species, locates its prey by touch, sweeping its open beak through the water and snapping it shut on any animal that comes into contact with its sensitive touch receptors. It is a technique that allows the spoonbill and related birds to feed in muddy lagoons and estuaries where their prey is invisible in the cloudy water. Like the avocets, spoonbills are specialists at feeding in the shallows, where they take fishes and aquatic insects.