Colours of Wildlife: Sacred Ibis
Created | Updated Nov 8, 2015
Sacred Ibis
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
What you have here is a Sacred Ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus. This easy-to-recognize bird was revered in ancient Egypt, identified with Thoth, the god of wisdom and learning, who frequently was depicted with an ibis head. Sadly, this species doesn't occur in Egypt any more. Today, it is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, apart from a population in Iraq. Very similar species occur in Madagascar, southern and south-eastern Asia, and Australia. A related, nearly flightless species lived on the island of Réunion, but, like the dodo from the neighbouring island of Mauritius, it became extinct soon after humans discovered the island.
Holy Chimney-Sweeps
In Afrikaans this species is called 'Skoorsteenveër' which means 'Chimney Sweep'. This refers to the bird's black head and neck, which give the impression it stuck its head up a sooty chimney. We don't really know why this ibis species has a featherless head and neck. It does occasionally eat carrion like a vulture, but not very habitually and it doesn't stick its head deep into carcasses like vultures do. Other ibis species also have bare heads and/or necks despite not eating carrion at all, such as the northern and southern Bald Ibises.
In South Africa, this species is quite common and often seen in large numbers. Here in Polokwane they are frequent around our bird sanctuary, roosting and occasionally breeding in the trees fringing the ponds, and moving out into the fields surrounding the sewage works to feed. Though they are closely associated with water, these ibises often feed on dry land. They often fly 20-30 km/12-20 miles from their roosts to their feeding grounds. They typically fly in a V-formation, one bird leading and the others trailing behind on its left and right. They fly in a light, graceful manner, with slow wingbeats, their necks stretched out before them. At the feeding grounds, they will pick up food from the ground, wade in shallow water, or probe into mud with their long, curved bills. They eat a large variety of small critters, such as insects, fish, frogs, lizards, and even small mammals and birds. In their mixed nesting colonies, they sometimes raid the nests of other bird species, taking eggs as well as chicks.
Black-and-White Elegance
This ibis is very striking, its white and black plumage standing out while it forages in green or brown fields or in wetlands. Sacred ibises reach a total length of 90 cm/3'. Apart from the black head and neck, it also has fine, black, decorative plumes overhanging the backs of its wings. During the breeding season, these plumes become glossy, with a purplish-blue iridescence. The breeding bird also develops a yellowish tinge to the feathers of its outer wings and flanks. There is also a line of bare skin on the underside of its wing, visible when it is flying, that becomes bright reddish-pink. In flight, it also displays a thin black margin along the outer edges of its wings. Breeding adults sometimes inflate their bare throats, this apparently being very impressive to each other. Other displays include sparring between the males, bill-clapping and head-bobbing. Once males and females have paired up, they show their affection towards each other by intertwining their necks and bills.
Sacred ibises often breed together with other species, such as egrets, herons or spoonbills. Sometimes they form exclusive ibis-only nesting groups. They make their nests in trees or reedbeds, using sticks, twigs and reed stems. They line the nests with grass and feathers. The female lays two or three eggs in this. The baby ibis is rather ugly and scruffy-looking. It starts out with a short and fairly straight bill, that grows longer and more curved as it grows up. Sub-adult birds have necks that are still feathered, the neck feathers only lost at full adulthood.
This ibis is not threatened at present. Indeed, it is a species that has benefited from human activity in South Africa. When Europeans came to the country, it was found mostly along the coast; as the people built dams and created artificial ponds and lakes, the ibises acquired many new nesting and feeding grounds, and were able to spread inland. Today, they are found all over the country, only absent in the driest interior desert regions such as the Karoo and the Kalahari. But they still need to have undisturbed roosting and nesting sites.
These ibises have even been introduced into some regions where they did not occur before: southern Europe, Taiwan, and the southern USA, especially Florida. They are adaptable and resourceful, and these introduced birds are actually proliferating and becoming an ecological problem in some areas, pushing out native species. Again, this shows that we humans shouldn't mess with Nature too much.
