Breakfast Onboard

Always a Joy to watch wildlife snatch a meal out of the pond. Don’t imagine I would be so successful if it were me standing there bare-handed trying to find something to eat : )

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Glossy Ibis

 

At distance, Glossy Ibises look uniformly dark, but a close look in good light reveals stunning colors: deep maroon, emerald, bronze, and violet. This long-legged, long-billed bird forages in flocks through wetlands and wet agricultural fields, searching for insects, small fish, and seeds.

 

The birds are somewhat nomadic, dispersing widely after the nesting season—a tendency that has aided the species in the past 100 years as it has expanded its range from the southeastern U.S. to include much of eastern North America.

 

Flocks of Glossy Ibis forage quite close together, advancing slowly as they probe a muddy area. This activity often attracts Snowy Egrets and other species of waders, which capture minnows and other prey moving away from the feeding ibis flocks.

 

Glossy Ibis is a cosmopolitan species, also found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In recent decades, its population in Spain has been increasing rapidly, probably helped by increased rice cultivation there. Glossy Ibises banded in Spain have turned up as far away as Barbados, having crossed the Atlantic—a remarkable feat but one that several species of heron and egret have managed as well.

 

The oldest recorded Glossy Ibis was at least 21 years old and lived in Virginia between 1971 and 1992.

 

(Sony, 200-600 @ 329 mm, 1/1250 @ f/6.3, IS0 1600, edited to taste)

Done