Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)

Family: The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) is a member of the spoonbill family Threskiornithidae in the order Pelecaniformes.

Habitat: The Cosmopolitan Glossy Ibis is the smallest Ibis in Australia. The glossy Ibis looks black when seen from a distance. It is only when seen close up that its red-brown coloring and the metallic iridescent sheen on the wings become noticeable. In flight, they resemble Black Cormorants, with their regular flapping alternating with short glides, but they hold their necks lower, inclined towards the ground. Glossy Ibises are gregarious birds and feed in small flocks of two to thirty or more in lagoons, shallow freshwater swamps, wet meadows, sewage ponds, paddies, and mud flats, particularly where trees and bushes provide shelter.  It is less commonly found in coastal locations such as estuaries, deltas, salt marshes, and coastal lagoons.

Identification: Both adult sexes are similar. However, males have larger bills. Both dark red-brown when breeding with metallic, iridescent green sheen cm wings. Head dusky, streaked while in non-breeding birds. The naked-faced is blue-grey with a white rim in breeding birds. Bill olive-brown. Legs, feet, and eyes are brown. The immature bird is a little duller in color than adults with dusky breasts and belly, and its bill is less curved. Head and neck patchy while. The downy young are dusky with white crown bands and bill black with low, fresh-colored bands.

Diet: They walk along and probe their bills into the water and mud, searching for frogs, mollusks (like snails and mussels), spiders, crustaceans (like crabs and crayfish), aquatic beetles, dragonflies, damselflies, grasshoppers, crickets, flies, and caddisflies; on a few occasions, prey also includes fish, amphibians, lizards, small snakes, and nestling birds. Sometimes they eat beetles and grasshoppers, which they peck off plants. Glossy ibises may be more specific in their food requirements than other ibises, particularly the straw-necked. They do not use typical mating locations but roam for eating grounds.

Nesting: Glossy Ibis nesting and breeding occur in September–April. A nest is a platform of slicks, generally with a lining of aquatic plants. Nests are built between upright branches of bushes or trees growing in water in secluded areas. Breeds together with other ibises in small colonies. Nesting in small colonies of 10–20 pairs, Glossy Ibises may breed within colonies of Straw-necked and Sacred Ibises. They start breeding later than the other ibises and build their nests sometimes lower, just above water level or on the periphery.

Breeding: Egg-laying extends about five weeks after the other ibises have completed their clutches. Of the several eggs laid, most hatch, but only one may fledge. Brooding commences as soon as the first egg is laid, which means that the young hatch in sequence. Glossy Ibis mates make guttural cooing sounds as they bow to and preen each other near the nest. Around two weeks after hatching, the young begin to roam the nesting bushes and mix with the young of Straw-necked Ibises. The first chick to hatch may outcompete later hatchlings for food, and thus the latter die. They differ from the latter in having two flesh-colored bands on their black bills. The young can fly for about one month and can feed themselves. Along with other species of ibises, spoonbills, and herons, they settle in the trees to feed during the day and roost with their parents quite late at night. Their core breeding range, however, seems to be the Murray-Darling basin, from which they disperse in autumn and winter to seek refuge in the wetlands of coastal northern Australia.

Eggs and Incubation: The bird lays up to six eggs, most frequently three; green-blue; elongate oval, about 52 x 35 mm.  The incubation period is about 21 to 23 days for both sexes; both feed the young by regurgitation. The young bird leaves the nest in 26 to 28 days.

Other names: It is also known as Black Curlew.

Size: Glossy Ibis measures about 495–550 mm in length, and the wingspan is 80–105 cm

Vocalization: The glossy Ibis call: croaking thu-thu-thu-u call during flight; grunting arrh and eh-eh-eh-h during breeding displays.

Distribution: Glossy Ibis are found frequently near swamps, lake margins, flats, and fields near water throughout mainland Australia. Nomadic or migratory. It is seen occasionally in eastern Victoria, northern Queensland, and central Australia. It is also found in North and Central America, Africa, southern Eurasia, and Papua New Guinea. Vagrants in Tasmania and New Zealand.

Races: There are no races.

Read More: The Spectacular Madagascar crested ibis (Lophotibis cristata)