Roadless Areas
Home/Species/ White Ibis

Eudocimus albus

(Linnaeus, 1758)

White Ibis

G5Secure Found in 3 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.100028
Element CodeABNGE01010
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAves
OrderPelecaniformes
FamilyThreskiornithidae
GenusEudocimus
Other Common Names
Ibis blanc (FR) Ibis Blanco (ES) white ibis (EN)
Concept Reference
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Taxonomic Comments
May constitute a superspecies with E. ruber (AOU 1998).
Conservation Status
Review Date1996-11-20
Change Date1996-11-20
Edition Date1995-05-04
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences> 300
Rank Reasons
Still common in many areas of the large range. Large declines have occurred in Florida in recent decades.
Range Extent Comments
Resident from central Baja California, central Sinaloa, southern and eastern Texas, southern Louisiana, Florida, southeastern Georgia, and coastal North Carolina (rarely Virginia) south along coasts and through Greater Antilles to French Guiana and northwestern Peru. Wanders casually north. (AOU 1983). In the U.S., the highest winter densities occur in Florida and around the mouth of the Mississippi River (Root 1988).
Ecology & Habitat

Description

A medium-sized wading bird with a long decurved bill, long legs, and a long neck (extended in flight); adult has white plumage and featherless pink facial skin, which, along with the bill and legs turns scarlet during the breeding season; tips of primaries in white adult are black (visible only in flight). Immatures initially are dark brown on the upperside of the wings, and have white underparts and wing linings and a pinkish bill; they gradually change to white plumage of adult over a period of about two years. Average length 64 cm, wingspan 97 cm (NGS 1983).

Diagnostic Characteristics

No other North American bird of this size has both a long, slender, decurved, pink/scarlet bill and a white belly (bill of the much larger wood stork is yellow much thicker).

Habitat

Various salt water and freshwater habitats: marshes, mangroves, lagoons, lakes, marsh prairie, pasture, coastal swamps (AOU 1983, Kushlan 1979). Often perches in trees. Nests in trees or shrubs near water, especially in wooded swamps; also on matted clumps of JUNCUS (Frederick 1987) or other marsh vegetation. May show fidelity to nest area despite chronic nest loss due to tidal washover. Typically nests with smaller EGRETTA herons (Frederick 1987).

Ecology

Highly gregarious. When not breeding, congregates at communal roosts; may move long distance between roost and feeding area (Hilty and Brown 1986).

Fish crow may prey on eggs but effect on ibis productivity was regarded as negligible in North Carolina (Shields and Parnell 1986).

Reproduction

Clutch size is 3-4 in the north, usually 2 in the south (Central and South America). Incubation lasts about 21- 23 days, by both sexes. Young leave nest at about three weeks, fly at about five weeks. Captive birds first bred at 2 years (Terres 1980, Palmer 1962). Largest colonies in coastal U.S. comprise about 5000-6200 birds on Atlantic coast (in Carolinas), 20,000 at Cedar Keys, Florida, and 60,000 just north of Lake Maurepas, Louisiana, on Gulf Coast (Spendelow and Patton 1988). In Florida, nesting success and high nesting numbers were associated with rapid water drying rate in spring (Frederick and Collopy 1989).
Palustrine Habitats
HERBACEOUS WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5B,N5N
ProvinceRankNative
LouisianaS5Yes
North CarolinaS3B,S3NYes
New JerseySNAYes
TennesseeS3NYes
GeorgiaS4Yes
AlabamaS2B,S3NYes
VirginiaS1BYes
MississippiS2B,S3NYes
South CarolinaS2Yes
TexasS4BYes
FloridaS4Yes
ArkansasS1BYes
Roadless Areas (3)
Florida (1)
AreaForestAcres
Alexander Springs CreekOcala National Forest2,954
Idaho (1)
AreaForestAcres
Bear CreekCaribou-Targhee National Forest118,582
North Carolina (1)
AreaForestAcres
Harper CreekPisgah National Forest7,325
References (30)
  1. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
  2. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in <i>The Auk</i>]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
  3. Bildstein, K. L. 1993. White ibis: wetland wanderer. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xiii + 242 pp.
  4. Bildstein, K. L., et al. 1990. Freshwater wetlands, rainfall, and the breeding ecology of white ibises in coastal South Carolina. Wilson Bull. 102:84-98.
  5. BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
  6. Dumas, J. V. 2000. Roseate Spoonbill (AJAIA AJAJA). No. 490 IN A. Poole and F. Gill, editors, The birds of North America. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 32pp.
  7. Fleury, B. E., and T. W. Sherry. 1995. Long-term population trends of colonial wading birds in the southern United States: the impact of crayfish aquaculture on Louisiana populations. Auk 112:613-632.
  8. Frederick, P. 1987. Chronic tidally-induced nest failure in a colony of white ibises. Condor 89:413-419.
  9. Frederick, P. C., and M. W. Collopy. 1989. Nesting success of five ciconiiform species in relation to water conditions in the Florida Everglades. Auk 106:625-634.
  10. Hancock, J. A., J. A. Kushlan, and M. P. Kahl. 1992. Storks, ibises and spoonbills of the world. Academic Press, San Diego, California. iv + 336 text pages.
  11. Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
  12. Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
  13. Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
  14. Kushlan, J. A. 1977. Population energetics of the American white ibis. Auk 94:114-122.
  15. Kushlan, J. A. 1979. Feeding ecology and prey selection in the white ibis. Condor 81:376-389.
  16. National Geographic Society (NGS). 1983. Field guide to the birds of North America. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC.
  17. Palmer, R. S. (editor). 1962. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 1. Loons through flamingos. Yale University Press, New Haven. 567 pp.
  18. Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  19. Powell, G.V.N. 1987. Habitat use by wading birds in a subtropical estuary: implications of hydrography. Auk 104:740-749.
  20. Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 511 pp.
  21. Ridgely, R. S. 2002. Distribution maps of South American birds. Unpublished.
  22. Ridgely, R. S. and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
  23. Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
  24. Shields, M. A., and J. F. Parnell. 1986. Fish crow predation on eggs of the white ibis at Battery Island, North Carolina. Auk 103:531-539.
  25. Sibley, D. A. 2000a. The Sibley guide to birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  26. Smith, J. P. 1995. Foraging flights and habitat use of nesting wading birds (Ciconiiformes) at Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Colonial Waterbirds 18:139-158.
  27. Spendelow, J. A. and S. R. Patton. 1988. National Atlas of Coastal Waterbird Colonies in the Contiguous United States: 1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.
  28. Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
  29. Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  30. Zook, J. L. 2002. Distribution maps of the birds of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Unpublished.