The European ibis is the cause of extinction. Ibis is a sacred and ordinary bird: description and species. The history of life in the zoo

This bird is shrouded in the legends of Ancient Egypt - the patron of wisdom, the god Thoth, was identified with it. The Latin name of one of its species - Threskiornis aethiopicus - means "sacred" in translation. It belongs to the order of storks, namely to the subfamily of ibis.

Description of ibis

Black and white or fiery scarlet, these beauties invariably attract the eye.. There are several varieties of these birds, differing in size and plumage color - about 25 species.

Appearance

In appearance, it is immediately clear that the ibis is a close relative of the stork: thin legs are too characteristic and recognizable, slightly shorter than those of the more famous counterparts, on the fingers of which there are membranes, and the silhouette of the bird itself is a long flexible neck crowned with a small head.

Dimensions

An adult ibis is a medium-sized bird, it can weigh about 4 kg, and its height is about half a meter in the smallest individuals up to 140 cm in large representatives. Scarlet ibis are smaller than their other counterparts, often weighing less than a kilogram.

Beak

It is unique among ibis - it resembles a curved saber in shape: long, longer than the neck, thin and bent down. Such a "tool" is convenient when rummaging through the muddy bottom or rocky crevices in search of food. The color of the beak can be black or red, as are the legs. One glance at the beak is enough to unmistakably distinguish the ibis.

Wings

Wide, large, consisting of 11 long main feathers, they provide birds with a soaring flight.

Plumage

Ibis are usually monochromatic: there are white, gray and black birds.. The tips of the flight feathers seem to be blackened with charcoal and stand out in contrast, especially in flight. The most spectacular species is the scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber). The color of its feathers has a very bright, fiery-burning hue.

It is interesting! In photographs, the ibis usually loses its real appearance: the shooting does not convey the expressive shine of smooth feathers. The younger the bird, the brighter its plumage shines: with each molt, the bird fades a little.

Some types of ibis have a beautiful long crest on their heads. There are naked individuals. It is impossible to distinguish a male from a female in ibis in appearance, like in all storks.

Lifestyle

Ibis live in flocks, uniting several bird families - from 10 to 2-3 hundred individuals. During flights or wintering, several flocks unite into thousands of "bird markets", and flocks of their distant relatives - spoonbills, cormorants, herons can join the ibises. Birds migrate in search of better food conditions and with the change of seasons: their migration paths lie between the ocean coast, tropical forests and wetlands.

Important! Northern types of ibis are migratory, "southerners" are sedentary, but can travel over a fairly large area.

As a rule, these birds live near the water. They walk along the shallow water or the shore, looking for food at the bottom or among the stones. Seeing the danger, they immediately take off into the trees or take refuge in the thickets. This is how they spend their mornings and afternoons, having a "siesta" for themselves in the midday heat. At dusk, ibises go to spend the night in their nests. They weave their "houses" of spherical shape from flexible branches or reed stalks. Their birds are located on trees, and if there is no high vegetation near the coast, then in thickets of reeds, reeds, papyrus.

How long do ibis live

The life expectancy of ibis in the wild is about 20 years.

Classification

The ibis subfamily has 13 genera, which include 29 species, including one extinct - Threskiornis solitarius, "Reunion dodo".

Ibis include species such as:

• black-necked;
• white-collared;
• spotty chested;
• blackheaded;
• black-faced;
• naked;
• sacred;
• Australian;
• forest;
• bold;
• red-footed;
• green;
• white;
• red and others.

The loaf is also considered a representative of the ibis. and - also their relatives, but more distant.

Range, habitats

Ibis can be found on almost all continents except Antarctica.. They live in warm latitudes: the tropics, subtropics, as well as the southern part of the temperate climate zone. A particularly large population of ibis lives in the east of Australia, especially in the state of Queensland.

Ibis love to live near water: slow-flowing rivers, swamps, lakes, even the ocean coast. Birds choose shores where reeds and other near-water plants or tall trees grow in abundance - these places are necessary for them for nesting. There are several types of ibis that have chosen the steppes and savannahs for themselves, and some varieties of the bald ibis feel great in the stony wastelands.

Scarlet ibis are found only on the coast of South America: these birds live in the territory from the Amazon to Venezuela, and also settle on the island of Trinidad. The forest bald ibis, which previously widely inhabited European expanses, has survived only in Morocco and in very small numbers in Syria.

ibis diet

Ibises use their long beak for its intended purpose, digging with it in the bottom silt or in the ground, and also rummaging between stones. Near-water species hunt, wandering in the water with a half-open beak, swallowing everything that gets into it: small fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, they will also eat a frog with pleasure. Ibises from dry areas catch beetles, worms, spiders, snails, locusts, sometimes a mouse, snake, lizard comes across in their beak. Any species of these birds feast on insects and their larvae. Rarely, but sometimes ibises do not disdain carrion and food from garbage dumps.

It is interesting! Scarlet ibis eat mainly crustaceans, which is why their plumage has acquired such an unusual color: the prey's shells contain the coloring pigment carotene.

Reproduction and offspring

The mating season for ibis comes once a year. For the northern species, this period begins in the spring; in the southern sedentary species, reproduction is timed to coincide with the rainy season. Ibis, like storks, find one mate for life.

These birds are excellent parents, both the female and the male take care of their offspring with equal care. Here is another use for jointly built nests, where the birds spent "siesta" and spending the night: 2-5 eggs are laid in them. Their father and mother incubate in turn, while the other half gets food. Nests are located close to other bird houses - for greater safety.

After 3 weeks, the chicks hatch: at first they are not very pretty, gray or brown. They are fed by both the female and the male. Young ibises will become handsome only in the second year of life, after the first molt, and a year later there will come a period of maturity that will allow them to make a mate for themselves and provide their first clutch.

Many people know that the ibis bird was especially revered in ancient Egypt. And what kind of bird it is, where it lives and what is remarkable about it, we will tell you today in our article. So, get acquainted - the magical bird ibis.

Ibis are relatives of storks

A bird with a beautiful name "ibis" and an unusual appearance is found in many parts of the world: in America, and in Africa, and on the mainland of Eurasia.

In total, 30 species have been identified, only 5 live in Russia. Outwardly, these closest relatives of spoonbills, herons and storks have common characteristics: the body is small, the legs are long, thin, ending with four fingers. Between the first three is a swimming membrane, necessary for their aquatic lifestyle.

The torso is connected to a small head by a long neck, gracefully extended during flight. They differ in plumage color, from bright scarlet or snow-white to nondescript brown-gray. In some species, long feathers form a crest on the back of the head.

But the most remarkable thing about ibises is their thin, long, curved beak, with which they look for food in the muddy bottom.

What do ibis eat

These birds settle in flocks along the banks of water bodies - slow rivers, lakes or swamps, overgrown with reeds and low trees. In dense thickets, they can take cover in the event of the appearance of enemies. Spoonbills, herons, and cormorants are sometimes found in the flock together with them.

A typical picture for such areas is walking around in shallow water with ankle-length birds with their beak lowered into the water. They drive them from side to side and, like a scoop, rake in all the living creatures that come across. These are any crustaceans, insects, mollusks, larvae, and a gaping frog can also be caught.

Away from the water, ibis dig in the ground with their long beak and get them beetles, snails, spiders, sometimes snakes and mice.

How ibis breed

Birds form a pair for life, and do everything together. They carry twigs or reed stalks, incubate the clutch and feed the chicks in turn.

The nest is usually in the form of a ball in a tree or in reeds, reed beds. The female makes clutch once a year, there are from two to five chicks. In northern species, this happens in the spring, in southern species living in the tropics and subtropics - during the rainy season.

Interesting facts from the life of ibis

Predators themselves, ibises become the prey of other birds, such as hawks, kites, eagles. Of the animals, hyenas, foxes, wild boars attack them and destroy their nests.

Many ibis die due to disturbed ecology, drainage of water bodies, complete destruction of the habitat, so many species have either disappeared altogether or are on the verge of extinction.

photo: Ross G. Strachan

What does it look like

The red ibis is a bird of medium and sometimes large size with a pronounced long, curved and thin beak that slopes downward. You can meet an individual with a bare neck and a head that is painted in a catchy red color. The beak and legs of the bird are also of the same color. The ibis has long legs and claws at the base connected by a small membrane. Broad wings contribute to a fast and strong flight. It is about 70 cm long and weighs about half a kilogram. Males and females look identical.

photo:Mafientje

Reproduction

The ibis is a flocking bird. Even in 100 individuals, flocks are located next to their relatives, forming thousands of clusters. Spring is considered the beginning of the mating season. The bird prefers to build nests on small branches of mangrove bushes. In order to protect their own and neighboring brood, ibis have families in close proximity to each other. After 3 weeks after laying, a flock of 1-3 chicks is born, which, in the opposite direction from their parents, have an unattractive gray or brown color. Two parents are responsible for raising the chicks. The incubation period lasts from 21 to 23 days. The process of coloring in a brighter and more attractive color occurs in the 2nd year of the chicks' life. Puberty occurs in the 3rd year. Red ibises live for about 20 years.

photo: stephanie carter

Lifestyle

They nest in large settlements. The nest for future chicks is built from branches and sticks. Ibis try to stay in large clusters, occupying entire territories with swamps and muddy rivers, where they find crabs and worms. Another favorite habitat is the shores of lakes and slow-moving rivers, which are located in spacious areas, overgrown tropical forests, in fields or meadows where very few people walk. They prefer to be located in tropical and temperate zones.

a photo:

diet

The red ibis prefers mainly crabs, mollusks and various spineless creatures, easily getting them out of mud or a pond. The ibis also supplements its menu with small fish, larvae, toads, butterflies and other insects. Sometimes it can be snails, locusts, mice, lizards or spiders. They use their sharp beak to search for food under water, in mud and earth.

photo: Mildred Chand

population

Not so long ago, the red ibis could be found in the vast territory and swampy growths of South America from Venezuela to Brazil. Sometimes the bird flew in from the north, appearing in all its glory on the territory of Cuba. Also, flocks of this species were seen in the United States. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to find the red ibis in its natural habitat. The fact is that people have awakened an excessive interest not only in the bright plumage of the ibis, but also in poultry meat. It is quite hard, oily and has a specific smell. The family of red ibis has rapidly declined at this time and you will no longer see those thousands of flocks that could be seen back in the 60s of the last century.

photo: ragingr2

Today, the red ibis joins the ranks of the observed lists and is protected by the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild animals, birds and flora. We can say that they are listed in the Red Book. At the moment, the family of red ibis is a little less than 200,000 thousand individuals. Birds are ringed to obtain accurate information about their distribution, flights, causes of death and life expectancy.

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EXTERNAL SIGNS. Ibis is a medium-sized bird, body length reaches cm, weight is several kilograms. In the appearance of ibises, there are many features inherent in all STORKS: thin legs, a long movable neck, and a small head. But there are also differences. Unlike storks, ibises have rather medium-length legs. The beak of all ibis is very thin and curved in an arc, by this feature it is easy to distinguish them from other birds. The color of the plumage of ibis is one-color white, black, gray. But the most elegant species is the scarlet ibis. Its plumage is an unusually bright and pure red, as if blazing with fire. Some species have a crest of long hanging feathers on their heads.

DISTRIBUTION Ibis is found on all continents except Antarctica. They live in the tropical, subtropical and southern temperate zones. The southern species are sedentary, the northern species fly. Ibis are semi-aquatic birds; they inhabit swamps, lakes and banks of rivers with a slow current, necessarily overgrown with trees or reeds. Ibis live in small flocks, but during flights and wintering they can form large clusters.

NUTRITION Ibis feed on animal food. Usually they walk in shallow water, lowering their beak into the water and moving it from side to side. All small living creatures that fall into the beak are eaten. They also probe the soil and dirt with their long beak in search of worms and mollusks, and on occasion they can eat a large frog. Sometimes ibises catch insects (locusts) on land and may even eat carrion.

PROTECTION AND THREATS. In an even more threatening position was the Japanese ibis. Once this bird was also widespread in Japan, China, on the Korean Peninsula. Due to hunting, its numbers have declined so much that it has been declared extinct twice! Both times, by a miracle, scientists managed to find several individuals in nature, but when trying to settle them in the zoo, almost all the birds died. Only at the cost of incredible efforts, using the most advanced incubation technologies, it was possible to increase the population to several dozen individuals, but even now the threat of extinction for this species has not passed. But the main danger for ibis lies in the reduction of natural habitats: drainage, melioration, water pollution, depletion of food resources lead to a reduction in their numbers. For example, the hairless ibis, which once lived throughout southern Europe and North Africa, is now found only in a tiny area in Morocco. The number of this species was influenced by hunting for chicks, which was often practiced in the Middle Ages, and then by the general displacement by humans from habitats. European hairless ibis wintered on the North African coast, but released from the nursery, they completely lost their memory of migratory routes. The scientists had to guide their subjects on the right path in light aircraft in order to restore their natural habits.

HISTORY Ibis played an important role in the culture of the ancient Egyptians, who depicted the god Thoth with the head of an ibis. The reason for this could be the annual mass arrival of ibis to the flood of the Nile in Egypt. Wall images of ibis are known, there were even mummified ibis in the graves. However, the modern species name of the sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) may be false, since there is no evidence that the Egyptians revered it. It is more likely that the revered bird was the forest ibis (Geronticus eremita), which lived in ancient Egypt and was supplanted by the sacred ibis much later. Until the 16th century, the forest ibis was also found in the mountainous regions of Europe, including the Alps. The extinction of this only European species of ibis was most likely due to hunting, habitat destruction and climate cooling. Ibis, and probably forest ibis again, are mentioned in the biblical story of Noah's Ark. According to legend, it was the ibis at the end of the flood that led Noah from the foot of Mount Ararat to the upper Euphrates, where he settled with his family. For this reason, an annual holiday is dedicated to the ibis in this region of Birecik.

BREEDING These birds breed once a year: in northern species, the breeding season begins in spring, in tropical species, it is confined to the rainy season. Ibis monogamous, that is, they form permanent pairs in which both parents take part in raising offspring. Ibis nests are spherical and made from twigs or reed stems. Nests are usually located in trees, often in close proximity to the nests of other birds. If there are no trees on the shore, ibises nest in dense thickets of reeds, papyrus, and reeds. The female lays 2-5 eggs. Both parents incubate the clutch and feed the chicks.

Red-footed ibis Distribution: In the past it was a widespread species for nesting - from the middle Amur region in Russia to the rights. Habitats: Swampy wide and gentle river valleys in low mountains and lowlands with areas of tall tree plantations, in combination with rice fields, lakes and oxbow lakes. On the sowing ibis hibernate on non-freezing sections of rivers, abandoned and flooded rice fields. It nests on tall pines and oaks in the middle part of the crown. A full clutch consists of 3-4 eggs. According to Japanese sources, both parents incubate for 28 days, fledglings are observed after 40 days, which, apparently, corresponds to the Russian grouping. With their parents, the young stay until the beginning of autumn, then the families huddle in flocks. In Japan, in the fall, the young leave the flocks and scatter for wintering in other districts. It feeds in ponds with a muddy bottom, see depth.

The Egyptian sacred god named Dzhekhuti, otherwise called Thoth (sometimes Tut or Tout), was always depicted with the head of an ibis bird. He was considered the one who gives his blessing to students of various sciences, writes books, sacred and ordinary. He was the god of wisdom, knowledge and the moon. But today we are not talking about the mythical deity itself, but about that sacred bird of ancient Egypt, which was the personification of this very wisdom and intelligence - the ibis.

Description of the long-legged handsome man

Ibis can be classified as an average bird species. Its dimensions are relatively small: the growth is about 60-70 cm, but the body length can reach an impressive size - more than a meter. The wingspan is 130 cm. This is a representative of the ibis family, the stork order. The bird weighs about 4-5 kilograms and holds all its weight on long thin legs. Ibises are very similar to herons and storks: they are related by a long neck, legs and beak. The length of the ibis beak can reach 40 cm, and the neck up to half a meter. Life expectancy in the wild is about 20 years. It is worth noting that these birds are monogamous, that is, they choose a couple for themselves once and for all. Perhaps this is a fairly complete description of the ibis to form a general idea about it.

The main colors of the sacred bird

In nature, the ibis bird comes in four colors: white, black, red and gray. The most common species of this sacred bird is considered to be a black representative of the breed. Its distinguishing feature is a bare black neck, a long curved beak and thin legs, which are also black in color. On the wings of such ibis there is an abundance of white feathers, grouped in the very center of the fly area. They form a small oval of regular shape, which contrasts very much with the black color of the bird. Often you can see a completely black representative of the ibis bird, and it happens that only the head, or rather the crest on it, will be bright red.

White ibises are distinguished by the fact that at the ends of their wings there is an abundance of black feathers, therefore, if you see a bird flying with spread wings, you may get the impression that higher powers have drawn a bright border along the very edge. The legs and bare neck of the white ibis are red. By the way, the "snow-white" albino ibis, which lacks any other color in color, is a rather rare species in nature. He is most similar to storks, herons and even a little flamingos.

The African gray ibis bird boasts an abundance of various shades on its plumage: it can be large bright orange spots on the back or a scattering of the same, only small ones, they can have a white belly or tail, there are also individuals with a yellow neck.

True perfection

The red ibis is considered the highest and perfect creation of nature. When he is young and in his prime (about 2 years old), his feathers are very brightly colored, burning with a red flame. However, after a few molts, the color of the feathers fades, the bird no longer looks so bright.

Habitat

In hot countries with a tropical, subtropical or temperate climate, you can most often find an ibis. They live on the banks of water bodies, away from people. It is generally accepted that the ibis is a bird of Africa or South America, but earlier, several centuries ago, long-beaked beauties settled in the mountains of Europe, nesting in sheer cliffs. Climate change and human destructive intervention - hunting - forced the representatives of the sacred bird to leave the mountainous regions and descend closer to the water. They prefer rivers, lakes or swamps overgrown with reeds and reeds. Some ibis nevertheless, perhaps at the call of their ancestors, remained to live in rocky savannahs, where there is practically no water. But, as you know, in nature there is a law under which animals adapt to living conditions, accepting them. Ibis love the company, they build nests and settle where they will certainly have neighbors: herons or cormorants. Nests can be located on the ground and in trees. Offspring are bred once a year. An incredible fact about the representatives of the sacred ibis bird is that they practically do not use their vocal cords, do not call to their own kind and do not sing songs. Long-legged beauties spend the whole day hunting, and at night they return to the pack to rest. Favorite treats: frogs, small fish, snails and some types of insects. Ibis can be seen in Japan and China, but now their population has declined so much that representatives of the animal protection society are forced to literally fight for each chick individually in order to save the population. The only place on earth where the ibis is protected and protected is Morocco. There, in just a few years, it was possible to significantly increase the number of individuals of this species of birds.

Why is the ibis considered a sacred bird?

In ancient Egypt, the ibis was considered a symbol of dawn, wisdom and knowledge, and the death penalty was provided for his murder. Most of all, the white representative of the stork family was revered, with brightly colored black wingtips. On ancient frescoes, the Egyptians depicted the god Thoth in human form, but with the head of an ibis bird. Perhaps, since then, long-legged and long-beaked beauties have been considered sacred birds, but there is no scientific confirmation of this fact.