Glossy Ibis | Plegadis falcinellus

Voice

Usually silent. At colonies and when flushed a low, hoarse grrr or a nasal, grating kraa-kraa.

Identification

Medium-sized, with long legs, a long neck and a long, evenly decurved bill. In the breeding season the head, neck and body are deep chestnut and the wings glossed metallic green and purple; a narrow blue-white line borders the bare lores. In winter plumage the head is dark with fine white streaks and the body duller. Juveniles are duller brown with little gloss and pale flecks on the head and neck. Bill brown, legs dark greenish-brown. Flies with neck and legs extended, alternating flaps and glides, often in lines or loose V's.

Confusion species

At a distance and against the light it may recall Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) or Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), but the combination of dark plumage, decurved bill and long legs is unique. Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is larger and bulkier, with a bare red head, red bill and legs and a shaggy ruff, and lives on dry steppe and cliffs rather than in marshes. A juvenile African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) has a paler, dirty-white body.

Habitat

Freshwater marshes with shallow water, flooded grassland, rice fields, fishponds, riverbanks and lagoon edges; on passage also irrigated farmland, sewage ponds and oases. Probes in mud and shallow water for insect larvae, snails, worms and small fish. Breeds in mixed colonies with herons in reeds, tamarisks or bushes over water.

Range and movements

In North Africa it breeds locally in north-west Morocco and in the marshes of north-east Algeria (around El Kala and Lake Fetzara); in Tunisia and Libya mainly a passage migrant. In Egypt it winters and passes through in the Nile Delta and Nile Valley. In the east it breeds in the marshes of southern Iraq and locally in Syria, and occasionally in Israel. On passage, mainly in April – May and August – October, it appears in almost every country of the region, including oases, irrigated fields and sewage ponds in Arabia; small numbers winter in Israel, along the Persian Gulf and in Oman. Beyond the region it breeds patchily in southern and eastern Europe, Central and South Asia, Africa, Australia and eastern America; European birds winter largely in the Sahel and West Africa.

• Resident
• Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
• Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

In April and May flocks move up the Jordan Valley and rest on the fishponds of the Hula and Beit She'an valleys, often with herons. In Egypt it feeds in winter in the rice fields and canals of the Nile Delta. A line of dark birds with long, drooping bills flying low over a marsh is almost always this species.

Conservation status

Not globally threatened, and increasing in western Europe and North Africa in recent decades; the Moroccan and Algerian breeders probably derive partly from Spain. In the region it depends on marshes under pressure from drainage, water abstraction and drought, especially in Iraq, where the partial restoration of the marshes after 2003 also benefited this species.

Scientific name

Plegadis falcinellus | (Linnaeus, 1766)

Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Tantalus Falcinellus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Plegadis was introduced in 1829 by Kaup. Plegadis is Greek, from plēgas, plēgados 'sickle', after the curved bill. falcinellus is a Latin diminutive of falx, falcis 'sickle': 'little sickle', likewise after the bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Java and Sulawesi.