All species › Pelicans, herons and ibises › Ibises and spoonbills › Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis | Plegadis falcinellus
Zwarte ibis | Morito Común
The Glossy Ibis is the smallest and slimmest ibis of the region, a dark marsh bird with a long, thin, decurved bill that shines metallic green, bronze and chestnut in good light. In the second half of the twentieth century it expanded strongly in South Africa, changing from a vagrant to a common breeding bird.
Voice
Usually silent. At the colony and when disturbed a low, hoarse croak, graa-graa, and a soft grunting murmur.
Recording: Xavier Riera — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 60 cm, slender and long-legged. Breeding adults are deep chestnut on the head, neck and underparts, with green- and purple-glossed wings and back; a narrow bluish-white border runs from bill base to eye. Outside the breeding season the head and neck are dull brown with fine white streaks and the gloss is weaker. The bill is olive-brown and decurved, the legs long and greyish brown. Juveniles are duller, without chestnut and with small white spots on the head and throat. It flies fast with alternating flapping and gliding, neck outstretched and legs projecting well beyond the tail, often in lines or loose Vs.
Confusion species
The Hadada Ibis Bostrychia hagedash is bulkier and shorter-legged, with a grey-brown body, a white cheek stripe and a loud call; in flight its feet do not project beyond the tail. Young African Sacred Ibises Threskiornis aethiopicus have a white body. At a distance a flock may suggest Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata or Eurasian Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, but those are brown-spotted and lack the dark, glossy silhouette.
Habitat
Shallow freshwater marshes, flooded grassland, floodplains, reed margins, dams and rice fields, rarely on the coast. Forages in groups, walking and probing in mud and shallow water for insects, larvae, snails, worms and small frogs. Breeds in colonies in reeds, sedges or bushes over water, often together with herons and cormorants.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Across much of the region, but local and variable: common in the Okavango Delta and on the floodplains of Zambia, and also in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and especially on the highveld and in the eastern provinces of South Africa; also in Eswatini and Lesotho. Scarce in the arid west of Namibia and in the Karoo, though it appears there after good rains. Beyond the region it is one of the most widespread birds in the world: Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Caribbean.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best in the morning on flooded grassland and shallow dams, where groups forage with herons and Sacred Ibises. The gloss shows only in direct sunlight; against the sky the bird looks all black. In flying groups watch for the thin decurved bill and the projecting legs.
Conservation status
Not threatened, with a very large range. It has increased in southern Africa, possibly because of dam building and irrigation; local colonies remain vulnerable to the drying out and reclamation of wetlands.
Scientific name
Plegadis falcinellus | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Tantalus Falcinellus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Plegadis was introduced in 1829 by Kaup. Plegadis is Greek, from plēgas, plēgados 'sickle', after the curved bill. falcinellus is a Latin diminutive of falx, falcis 'sickle': 'little sickle', likewise after the bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Java and Sulawesi.