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American White Ibis | Eudocimus albus
Witte ibis | Ibis blanco
The American White Ibis is a white ibis with a red face and a long, red, decurved bill. In the guide area it is a common resident of mangroves, coastal lagoons and freshwater marshes in the lowlands, on both coasts of Mexico and throughout Central America. The birds forage in groups and fly in long lines or V-formations to communal roosts.
Voice
Usually silent. On take-off and in flight a nasal, hoarse hunk-hunk-hunk; at the colony grunting and croaking sounds.
Recording: Daniel Parker — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
53–70 cm. Adults are entirely white, with black tips to the outer primaries that are mainly visible in flight. The face, bill and legs are red to pink; in the breeding season they are deep red and the bill tip is dark, and the throat may then be slightly swollen. The eye is pale blue. Juveniles are grey-brown on the head, neck, back and wings, with a white belly, lower back and rump; the bill is orange-pink. During the moult to adult plumage they are patchily mottled white and brown. It flies with the neck outstretched, on quick beats alternating with short glides.
Confusion species
Snowy Egret Egretta thula and Great Egret Ardea alba have a pointed, straight bill and fly with the neck retracted; young Little Blue Herons Egretta caerulea are white with a greyish bill. Wood Stork Mycteria americana is much larger, with a bare, grey head and black flight feathers. Juveniles can resemble Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus and White-faced Ibis Plegadis chihi, but those are also dark below.
Habitat
Mangroves, coastal lagoons, tidal mudflats, salt marshes and freshwater marshes, also rice fields, wet pastures, ditch banks and lawns in coastal towns; mainly in the lowlands. It forages on foot, probing mud and shallow water with the bill for crabs, crayfish, insects and other small animals. It breeds in large, often mixed colonies in mangroves and shrubs over water.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
On the Pacific side from Baja California Sur and Sonora southwards, and on the Gulf side from Tamaulipas through Veracruz and Tabasco to the Yucatán Peninsula, and further in the lowlands of all of Central America to Panama, on both coasts; inland mainly in large wetlands. Outside the guide area in the south-eastern United States, the Greater Antilles and along the north coast of South America to Venezuela, and on the Pacific side to Peru.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In mangroves and coastal lagoons almost everywhere, for example at San Blas in Nayarit, Celestún and Ría Lagartos in Yucatán, Crooked Tree in Belize and Palo Verde in Costa Rica. In the late afternoon long lines of White Ibises can be seen heading for their roosts.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common in the guide area. Colonies are sensitive to disturbance, mangrove clearance and the drainage of wetlands; locally the birds are hunted.
Scientific name
Eudocimus albus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Scolopax alba; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Eudocimus was introduced in 1832 by Wagler. Eudocimus is Greek, from eudokimos 'glorious, esteemed' (eu 'good' and dokimos 'excellent'). albus is Latin for 'white', after the white plumage of the adult. The specimen the first description was based on came from Carolina (United States).