African Sacred Ibis

An adult individual is 68 cm (27 in) long with all-white body plumage apart from dark plumes on the rump. Wingspan is 112 to 124 cm (44 to 49 in) and body weight 1.35 to 1.5 kg (3.0 to 3.3 lb). Males are generally slightly larger than females. The bald head and neck, thick curved bill and legs are black. The white wings show a black rear border in flight. The eyes are brown with a dark red orbital ring. Sexes are similar, but juveniles have dirty white plumage, a smaller bill and some feathering on the neck, greenish-brown scapulars and more black on the primary coverts. This bird is usually silent, but occasionally makes puppy-like yelping noises, unlike its vocal relative, the hadada ibis.

The African sacred ibis occurs in marshy wetlands and mud flats, both inland and on the coast. It preferably nests on trees in or near water. It feeds wading in very shallow wetlands or slowly stomping in wet pastures with soft soil. It will also visit cultivation and rubbish dumps.

The species are predators which feed primarily by day, generally in flocks. The diet consists of mainly insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates, as well as various fish, frogs, reptiles, small mammals and carrion. It may also probe into the soil with its long beak for invertebrates such as earthworms. It even sometimes feeds on seeds. Sacred ibises were observed to occasionally feed on the contents of pelican eggs broken by Egyptian vultures in the mixed colonies of the ibises, cormorants, pelicans and Abdim's storks at Lake Shala in Ethiopia. On Central Island in Lake Turkana sacred ibises were noted to incidentally eat Nile crocodile eggs excavated by Nile monitors. Most recently, in 2006, observations were reported from a large mixed colony on Bird Island (called Penguin Island in the article) in South Africa, where 10,000 pairs of gannets nested, together with 4800 pairs of Cape cormorant and other species such as gulls and jackass penguin. …