White faced Ibis

The ibis family also includes spoonbills. There are about thirty- three species of ibises and spoonbills in the world. Five of these ibises live in North America. They are a medium sized wading birds with short tails. The legs are long with partial webs between the toes. The middle toe shows as slightly scalloped.

Ibis are in an order of birds with about 112 other like species. These include storks, herons, and flamingos. All are long legged, and long billed waders with short tails. The wings are long, broad, and rounded. The area between the eye and the base of the bill is bare of feathers in most species. All White-faced Ibises look dark when sighted from a distance.

Most of the adult White-faced Ibises stand about 2 feet tall. In flight they often fly in long lines with neck and legs outstretched. The White-faced Ibis is a dusky, brownish-red colored-bird with green or purples on its head and upper parts, with long legs. One of the outstanding physical appearances of the ibis is its long, curved down bill. In fact, the genus name (Plegadis) comes from a Greek word meaning scythe or sickle, and it describes this bird's bill well.

The White-faced Ibis appears similar to the Glossy Ibis except during the mating season. At this time the White-faced Ibis has a narrow border of white feathers all around its bare facial skin at the base of the bill. Also this ibis has reddish legs and feet and red bare skin on the face near the eyes.

They roost on low landings of dead fibrous stems or on mud banks. This order of bird was formerly more wide spread. Previously it ranged from Oregon to Minnesota and south into Mexico and east to Louisiana. It also lived in Florida and parts of South America. These birds emigrate to the southern part of their range and in Mexico in winter. The White-faced Ibis frequents marshes, swamps, ponds and rivers. The elimination of swamps, prolonged lack of moisture, and chemical poisonings have reduced the birds to separate colonies. They hardly meander, and may turn up anywhere in the Pacific Northwest particularly in spring.One of the preferred marsh birds discovered in the Great Basin area of the Pacific Northwest is the unusually colored White-faced Ibis.

They form generally small flocks eating in tall grass in wet meadows. It nests in isolated colonies from Oregon to Kansas, but its center of greatest abundance seems to be in Utah, Texas and Louisiana. In Texas, they breed and winter along the Gulf Coast and may live as migrants in the Panhandle and West Texas. These birds are extremely rare in the eastern United States except Florida and Louisiana.

Go To Page: 1 2