ML26589091

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

A Glossy Ibis had been reported at this location on the central valley birding list serve two days prior by John Ehrenfeld. About half of the ibis I had been looking through were not yet in breeding plumage: their entire body was dark gray, their facial skin was a dull gray color and some individuals' eyes didn't appear to be red. The other half of the ibis were in varying stages of breeding plumage: iridescent reddish-bronze front half of the body, white border of feathers around face, red facial skin, and red eyes. After over an hour of searching and looking carefully at several hundred ibis, this individual immediately appeared different to me because of the blue facial skin. I first spotted it with its bill tucked in, but I could clearly see the blue of the skin above the base of the bill. As far as I could tell the eye color was dark with no hint of red. This individual was apparently in breeding plumage on account of the bronze plumage of the head and neck. All the other ibis I saw in breeding plumage showed red facial skin and red eyes in good lighting. This individual showed pale narrow lines along the perimeter of the facial skin. This was in contrast to the White-faced Ibis which showed white feathering around the perimeter of the skin but as far as I could tell all the feathers surrounding the face on this individual were dark. The pale lines were limited to the facial skin itself. I first spotted this individual at about 1 p.m. with the sun at my back. I had views through my scope at 60x power while the bird foraged in the flooded field about 100-200 meters to the northeast of me. There were plenty of White-faced Ibis nearby for direct comparison. I could not find any other characteristics (i.e. body size, bill color) to distinguish this individual other than the facial characteristics mentioned. I observed the bird for about a half hour as it moved around with the other ibis. After losing sight of it several times I was easily able to identify it again once it lifted its head to reveal its facial pattern and eye color.

Technical information

Model

DMC-FZ150

ISO

100

Focal length

108 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.2

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

817 pixels x 591 pixels

Original file size

230.31 KB