White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

Return to Eastern Ibises

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 22 to 25 inches.

Adult: Plumage a rich, shiny, dark rusty brown with green iridescence on the wings. Bill gray-brown, long, curved downward. Legs red and gray. Face without feathers between eye and bill and with a wide white line around the eye. Eye red during the breeding season.

Immature: Similar in shape to the adult, but grayer and without the green iridescence on the wings. Neck and side of head with white streaking.

Similar Species:  The White-faced Ibis is nearly identical to the Glossy Ibis. However during the breeding season the Glossy Ibis has a brown, not red, eye, and the white line around the eye is much thinner. Immatures of the two species are virtually identical.

Breeding Range (see map below): The White-faced Ibis is resident in the southwestestern United States and along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana. The species breeds, but is not resident, sporadically throughout much of western North America. The species is also present in Mexico.

Overwintering Range:  See above.

Habitat:  The species occurs in salt marshes and oncoastal islands along the Gulf Coast. It is found in freshwater marshes in the west.

Food: This species feeds primarily on invertebrates, including crayfish at inland localities and crabs in salt water habitats.

Behavior: The White-faced Ibis is a wader searching for its food items in shallow water or on mudflats. The voice is a series of grunts or high-pitched sheeplike noises.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 3 or 4 blue-green eggs. The eggs are laid in a nest of reeds lined with grass placed in a low shrub along a marsh or lagoon shore.