ML131078641

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

One bird in with a flock of 43 Glossy Ibis. Flock first seen by Al Guarente who reported it to the Chesco Birds GroupMe instant messaging list at 5:50pm when he reported 35 Glossy Ibis. At 6:09pm, Andrew Leidig confirmed they were still there. I found the flock at 6:44pm (I work nearby in Kennett Square) after seeing Al and Andrew's reports. On arriving at the site, I saw the flock was mostly heads-down, feeding in long grass and counted a total of 44 birds although an exact count was difficult as they were feeding in and out of a long depression in the field - which itself was full of long grass. I took numerous pictures over the course of 15 minutes. At first I did not notice the White-faced Ibis as the image was too small in my camera viewfinder - I was concentrating on getting a good set of record shots for the flock. However, after zooming in on it, I noticed this was clearly a different bird and reported to the Chesco Birds list that I had one Ibis with a whiter face. Later in the evening I uploaded my pictures to the PA Birds group on Facebook and also reported the sighting to the PA BIRDS email list. Later, I heard that Holly Merker had attempted to locate the flock around 8pm but it had moved on. The pictures below are the better ones I took - and are the same ones I posted to the PA Birds facebook group. These were taken in fairly low light, so are grainy. However, the white mask of the White-faced Ibis is clearly visible and distinguishable from the bluer mask of the Glossy Ibis. Also, the reddish color of the eye and the lores is clearly visible in the pictures. After examining my bird guides and checking online for sample ID pictures I am confident that this is a White-faced Ibis. Glossy and White-faced Ibis White-faced Ibis White-faced Ibis White-faced Ibis - crop White-faced Ibis White-faced Ibis White-faced Ibis

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

1000

Focal length

215 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/320 sec

Dimensions

546 pixels x 510 pixels

Original file size

92.84 KB