This afternoon a Plegadis, sp., ibis was reported on the north side of Armitage Road in the partially flooded field west of Olmstead Road and east of the Clyde River & Erie Canal swamps. This is in Wayne County, in the southwest corner of the Town of Savannah. The bird was close to the east end of the field and about halfway from Armitage Road to the far dike, foraging in a non-flooded part of the muddy field and sometimes in an adjacent weedy strip. At least one Canada Goose was not in a sharing mood and caused the ibis to walk extra and even fly a short distance.
If anyone can say based on extensive experience and seeing this bird or photos of it whether it is a Glossy Ibis or it is a White-faced Ibis, I am interested in an ID and the basis for it. I believe it was a juvenile bird just starting its first winter, based on the general lack of contrast of the plumage of the body & folded wings. It was fairly dark brown on the body with only a small amount of slight green highlight on the wing coverts that I saw. The head & neck were tan and lighter on the side of the head. The legs were all dark. The bill appeared uniform gray. There was no indication of red on the facial skin nor any pale edging (indeed I could not see any facial skin), nor any red to the eye. I suspect it was too young to develop any of these field marks. Perhaps the low heavy cloud cover, and the distance to the bird made such subtleties too hard to discern even at 60x with a scope steadied against the brisk wind. That’s my observation, but others may have seen things differently. I think the gray bill suggests White-faced. The lack of pale edging to the facial skin would also suggest White-faced, but as I said, it may be too young for that feature of Glossy to develop. I’m pretty sure this is too early in the season to expect the red eye or red facial skin of White-faced to be present, so their absence would mean nothing. I believe red legs would only be on the breeding plumage White-faced. I thought the tan head & neck might suggest White-faced as well, but I could be wrong about that. As for the overall body color, I thought Glossy should be darker, but I can’t claim enough experience to be certain. Maybe if this bird sticks around for some sunshine, then someone can judge the colors and highlights better. Other observers present while I was there included Ann Mitchell, Kevin McGann, & Wade & Melissa Rowley. Wade in particular had the impression that the overall tone of the body was dark, suggesting Glossy to him. He has traveled through the White-faced Ibis’ range during the winter, so he has more experience than I do, but he still doesn’t claim to be an expert. He took plenty of photos, although my impression was that the bird was lighter in color in real life than at the least the one photo he showed me. If anyone does want to claim the role of expert, here’s an opportunity. It may be that birds of this age are just too hard to tell apart unless both species are side-by-side. I have heard second-hand that Kevin McGowan had also observed this bird quite a while, taken lots of photos, and not yet reached a conclusion, and perhaps that’s as good an expert opinion as we can expect. Similarly, I am interested in others’ observations of details of this bird, and what they may or may not suggest as to its ID, regardless of any conclusion or claim of expertise. It’s an interesting puzzle. It would be nice to settle on a species not just for my own and others’ personal lists, but for the 2017 edition of Cayuga Lake Basin First Records list which I have maintained on the Cayuga Bird Club website. There were two other all-dark ibis sightings this year, a single bird over Tschache Pool and a small flock over Cornell University, and both times the observers assumed them to be Glossy without any details to distinguish the birds from White-faced, the former observation being a shaky, distant, and much-magnified video, and the latter observation being a naked-eye view of birds in flight at 75 yards. I do not doubt each were ibis, but I think one cannot assume that just because we are closer to the usual range of Glossy that they are overwhelmingly more likely to stray west from their coastal breeding range as opposed to White-faced straying east from their breeding range. Indeed we once had one of each side-by-side at Benning Marsh. Anyway, I counted both of those observations as Plegadis, sp., and I’m looking for an observation of a bird which is distinctly either Glossy or White-faced before I put it on the year’s list. - - Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
