Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Charles Dewey/Audubon Photography Awards
Glossy Ibis
Plegadis falcinellus
| Conservation status | North American population greatly increased, and expanded range northward, during 20th century. In some areas, apparently has declined somewhat since 1970s. |
|---|---|
| Family | Ibises and Spoonbills |
| Habitat | Marshes, rice fields, swamps. Forages in shallow waters, favoring marshes (either fresh or salt), flooded fields, shallow ponds, estuaries. Nests in low stands of willows and other shrubs surrounded by marsh, on ground in spartina marsh, in dense thickets of trees and shrubs on higher ground, sometimes in mangroves. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Forages mostly by wading in shallow water, probing in soft mud for food. Also picks up insects and other visible items from surface of water or soil.
Eggs
3-4, sometimes 1-5. Pale blue or green. Female does more of incubation than male: all night, part of day. Incubation period about 21 days. Young: Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. By age of 2-3 weeks, young may wander or climb about near nest. First attempt to fly at 4-5 weeks. At 6-7 weeks, young can fly well, may go to feeding areas with parents.
Young
Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. By age of 2-3 weeks, young may wander or climb about near nest. First attempt to fly at 4-5 weeks. At 6-7 weeks, young can fly well, may go to feeding areas with parents.
Diet
Mostly insects and crayfish. Feeds on beetle larvae in soft soil, also adults and larvae of many aquatic insects. Crayfish may be main food in some areas. In Florida, reported to eat many small snakes. Also may eat leeches, snails, crabs, frogs, small fish.
Nesting
Breeds in colonies, sometimes associated with other kinds of wading birds. Nest site is in shrubs or low trees over water or over land, or on ground on island. Nest (built by both sexes) is bulky platform of sticks and marsh plants, with a shallow depression at center. Adults may continue adding to nest throughout the period of incubating the eggs and feeding the young.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
Low grunts and higher-pitched bleats.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Glossy Ibis In the News More News
Audubon Mural Project
Glossy Ibis and Lewis’s Woodpecker by Kristy McCarthy and Pelumi Adegawa
Location: 3671 Broadway, New York, NY 10031
The Birdist’s Rules Of Birding
Birdist Rule #83: Identify Your First Ibis
Beware: We have three species, and two of them can be really confusing.
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48 Hours of Birding (and Other Things): New York City
There's nothing like spring migration in Manhattan and Queens.
