NJ Ibis Trifecta - 4/24/24

     On Wednesday I went to Island Beach State Park to bird, my go to place.  I arrived there at mid-morning and, because of a prior family commitment, only had until noonish to bird.  With my time restriction, I decided to only walk the Reeds Road trail at the park’s north end and Spizzle Creek trail closer to the southern end.  Most of my time between the two trails did not produce much in terms of new arrival species.  Until a significant migratory push of spring birds occurs, there are a lot of the usuals around.  Most of the winter ducks have vacated or dwindled to a fraction of their peak numbers.  Some patches of brant and bufflehead are still lingering, as well as a few long-tailed ducks and common loons.

On the upside though are the wading birds.  The marshes at Spizzle Creek and the Sedge Islands are now hosting almost all of New Jersey’s expected waders:  great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, tricolored heron, little blue heron and glossy ibis.  I’m still waiting for my first of the year green heron to show.  I might have to wait until summer when I kayak the sedges to find the yellow-crowned and black-crowned night-herons.  But here now in the mix of waders are white ibises.  White ibis used to be rare in the state and were removed from the state records committee’s review species list in 2018.  Not too long ago, a white ibis sighting in Ocean County was an event.  Now multiple birds are not unusual.  They have been breeding in Ocean City, Cape May County the past few years.  With their numbers increasing, they are naturally spreading north.  Hopefully this will be the year they breed here.

While at Spizzle Creek trail, I came upon a foraging squad of waders just off of the trail.  Through the trees I saw a congregation (the collective term for a bunch of egrets) of snowy and great egrets.  Among the congregation were a couple of white ibis.  Also in the mix were 10 glossy ibis (enough I feel to be considered a colony).  So, two of the three expected ibis species were there together.  The hard part now was to make one of those glossy ibises into a white-faced ibis.  White-faced ibis are no longer on our review species list, since 2014, but are still rare in the state.  This mid-western species occasionally shows up in the east.  Usually, sightings are of an individual associating with glossies.

Glossy and white-faced ibis are very similar in appearance.  The main difference is between their faces.  Glossy ibis have a bare bluish face with a broken white border and dark eyes.  The white-faced ibis has a bare pinkish face with a white border that wraps around the back of reddish eyes.  If a white-faced ibis is present, the hard part is usually trying to pick it out of a colony of glossy ibis.  Most of the ibis I then was looking at had their heads down and their legs hidden in the reeds.  By default, they were all likely glossy ibis.  Through the trees I found one preening itself, and it appeared to have a pink face.  I needed a picture to be sure and it wasn’t easy focusing through the tree limbs and reeds.  One of my photos had the bird in a profile pose.  I couldn’t make out a distinct white border though.  I sent the pic to some friends seeking their thoughts.  Everyone did not want to commit to white-faced ibis based on that one photo.  I decided to hold off on its identification.
Left, white-faced ibis.  Right, white-faced ibis (center) with white ibis (left) and snowy egrets (right).  © S. Weiss

Left, front view of white-faced ibis.  Right, comparison photo of glossy ibis.  © S. Weiss
Notice bluish bare face with dark eyes of glossy ibis versus the pink bare face and reddish eye of the white-faced in top photos.

Later in the day when I went through the rest of the photos, I found one showing the bird from its front side.  That pic appeared to show a white border.  I sent the pics to another friend who is a bird tour leader.  He confirmed it as a white-faced ibis.  So, there it was, all three of the state’s ibis species together at the same time, within feet of each other.  

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