A small, dark ibis with a rather fine, down-curved bill. In the breeding season the plumage is a deep chestnut, glossed with purple and green on the back and wings. Its bare lores have a narrow white edge. The non-breeding plumage is duller, with white streaking on dark brown head and neck. It can be found on large reservoirs, river banks and marshes, and is often seen in flocks, which fly in V-fonnation. It feeds on insects, molluscs and crustaceans, caught along the water’s edge with its head often submerged. It is silent except for a bleating call during breeding season. It roosts in trees and nests in mixed heronries.
🗒 Synonyms
| synonym | Plegadis falcinellus falcinellus (Linnaeus, 1766) |
🗒 Common Names
| Assamese |
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| English |
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📚 Overview
Summary
Bird group
Ibises
Description
The glossy ibis is a striking wading bird long, slender, down-curved bill and magnificent plumage. Its Latin name, Plegadis falcinellus, refers to its distinctive bill and means ‘scythe’ or ‘sickle’. Its bill is long, slender, down-curved in shape. The bird has a maginificent dark plumage. In breeding plumage, the glossy ibis is rich chestnut on the head, neck, upper back and underparts, while the feathers of the lower back, wings and tail have a green, purple and bronze metallic sheen. The legs are generally dark brown to olive-grey, and the bill is usually grey or brownish. During the breeding season, the facial skin between the base of the bill and the eye appears blue-black in adult birds, with a distinctive edging of pale-blue skin above and below. The non-breeding plumage is similar, although much duller, appearing darker brown in colour, with dense white streaks on the head and neck.
The male and female glossy ibis are similar in appearance, although the female is generally smaller. Immature glossy ibis appear similar to the non-breeding adults, with an oily-green sheen to the feathers, a grey-brown head and neck and variable flecks of white on the forehead, throat and neck.
No Data
📚 Nomenclature and Classification
📚 Natural History
Reproduction
The nest is a platform of twigs and vegetation usually positioned less than 1 m above water (occasionally up to 7 m) in tall dense stands of emergent vegetation (e.g. reeds or rushes), low trees or bushes over water (del Hoyo et al. 1992).
Behaviour
All populations of this species undergo post-breeding dispersal movements (del Hoyo et al. 1992) and are considerably nomadic (Snow and Perrins 1998).
In addition northern breeding populations are fully migratory (del Hoyo et al. 1992) and may travel on a broad front (e.g. across the Sahara) (Brown et al. 1982).
Northern and southern breeding populations breed during the local spring, whilst breeding elsewhere coincides with the rains (del Hoyo et al. 1992). The species nests in mixed-species colonies, either in small groups (e.g. 5-100 pairs in Africa) (Brown et al. 1982) or in large aggregations of thousands of pairs, and during the winter or dry seasons the species usually forages in small flocks (Hancock et al. 1992, del Hoyo et al. 1992) of up to 30 indivduals (Brown et al. 1982).
It often roosts communally at night in large groups (sometimes thousands of individuals) with other species, occasionally in trees far from wetland feeding sites (Brown et al. 1982).
Trophic Strategy
The diet of the species varies seasonally depending on what is available (Hancock et al. 1992). It takes adult and larval insects (e.g. aquatic beetles, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, flies and caddisflies), worms, leeches, molluscs (e.g. snails and mussels), crustaceans (e.g. crabs and crayfish) and occasionally fish, frogs, tadpoles, lizards, small snakes and nestling birds (del Hoyo et al. 1992).
No Data
📚 Habitat and Distribution
General Habitat
Habitat
Terrestrial
Marine
Freshwater
Frequents large beels, river banks, marshes etc.
Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine.
The species feeds in very shallow water (Hancock et al. 1992) and nests in freshwater or brackish wetlands with tall dense stands of emergent vegetation (e.g. reeds or rushes) and low trees or bushes (Marchant and Higgins 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1992). It shows a preference for marshes at the edges of lakes and rivers (Hancock et al. 1992), as well as lagoons, flood-plains, wet meadows (Marchant and Higgins 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1992), swamps (del Hoyo et al. 1992), reservoirs (Hancock et al. 1992), sewage ponds, rice-fields and irrigated cultivation (Marchant and Higgins 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1992). It less often occurs in coastal locations such as estuaries, deltas, saltmarshes (Hancock et al. 1992) and coastal lagoons (del Hoyo et al. 1992). Roosting sites are often large trees that may be far from water (Brown et al. 1982, del Hoyo et al. 1992).
Description
Global Distribution
India
Distribution In India
Partly resident, partly winter visitor to north, east and North East India, South to Kerala, BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN, SRI LANKA
Distribution In Assam
Migratory in Assam (Sivasagar, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Jorhat, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh. Recorded from Bordoibam-Bilmukh BS, Dibru-Saikhowa NP, Ghilamora, Jamjing RF, Sengajan RF, Majuli, etc.
Wide discontinuous breeding distribution from South Europe, Africa and Madagascar (also Agalega in West Indian Ocean) to Central & South Asia, Philippines, Sulawesi and Java; South New Guinea and Australia (except arid interior); also Atlantic coast of North America and West Indies to NorthCentral Venezuela. Occurs more widely as a vagrant.
Global Distribution
Native: Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Angola; Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Armenia; Aruba; Australia; Azerbaijan; Bahamas; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belize; Benin; Bermuda; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cambodia; Cameroon; Canada; Cayman Islands; Central African Republic; Chad; China; Colombia; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cuba; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; Eritrea; Ethiopia; France; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Greece; Guadeloupe; Guinea-Bissau; Haiti; Honduras; Hungary; India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Italy; Jamaica; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Kuwait; Lebanon; Liberia; Libya; Luxembourg; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Madagascar; Malawi; Malaysia; Mali; Malta; Martinique; Mauritania; Mexico; Moldova; Montenegro; Montserrat; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nepal; Niger; Nigeria; Oman; Pakistan; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation (European Russia); Rwanda; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Slovakia; Slovenia; Somalia; South Africa; South Sudan; Spain (Canary Is. - Vagrant); Sri Lanka; Sudan; Swaziland; Syrian Arab Republic; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Turks and Caicos Islands; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United States; Uzbekistan; Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of; Viet Nam; Yemen; Zambia; Zimbabwe. Vagrant: Austria; Belarus; Belgium; British Indian Ocean Territory; Brunei Darussalam; Cape Verde; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Denmark; Estonia; Faroe Islands; Fiji; Finland; Germany; Gibraltar; Hong Kong; Iceland; Ireland; Kyrgyzstan; Latvia; Lesotho; Maldives; Netherlands; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Norway; Poland; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Solomon Islands; Sweden; Switzerland; Togo; United Kingdom; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.
No Data
📚 Occurrence
No Data
📚 Demography and Conservation
Trends
Decreasing
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Category
Least Concern
IUCN Redlist Status: Least Concern
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1
Threats
The species is threatened by wetland habitat degradation and loss (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Snow and Perrins 1998) through drainage (Marchant and Higgins 1990, Hancock et al. 1992) for irrigation and hydroelectric power production (Balian et al. 2002), clearing, grazing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants (Marchant and Higgins 1990).
It is also threatened locally by hunting (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Snow and Perrins 1998), disturbance and pesticides (del Hoyo et al. 1992), and is susceptible to avian influenza so may be threatened by future outbreaks of the virus (Melville and Shortridge 2006).
No Data
📚 Uses and Management
📚 Information Listing
References
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. Checklist of the birds of India (v1.1). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 03 October, 2016].
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2018. Checklist of the birds of India (v2.0). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 31 January, 2018].
- BirdLife International. 2016. Plegadis falcinellus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22697422A86436401. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22697422A86436401.en. Downloaded on 25 April 2018. Date of access - 25/04/2018.
- Matheu, E., del Hoyo, J., Kirwan, G.M., Garcia, E.F.J. & Boesman, P. (2018). Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/52775 on 25 April 2018). Date of access - 25/04/2018.
Information Listing > References
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. Checklist of the birds of India (v1.1). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 03 October, 2016].
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2018. Checklist of the birds of India (v2.0). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 31 January, 2018].
- BirdLife International. 2016. Plegadis falcinellus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22697422A86436401. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22697422A86436401.en. Downloaded on 25 April 2018. Date of access - 25/04/2018.
- Matheu, E., del Hoyo, J., Kirwan, G.M., Garcia, E.F.J. & Boesman, P. (2018). Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/52775 on 25 April 2018). Date of access - 25/04/2018.
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🐾 Taxonomy
| Root | Root |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Pelecaniformes |
| Family | Threskiornithidae |
| Genus | Plegadis |
| Species | Plegadis falcinellus (Linnaeus 1766) |
📊 Temporal Distribution
📷 Related Observations
👥 Groups
