Australian White Ibises At Our Place.

Australian White Ibises. The lead bird, in this single file, looks to be a juvenile. The other two have long neck feathers. Cannot find anything about these neck feathers on these birds or why they have them plus they aren't always visible. Their lacy tail feather covering is really noticeable in this shot. Hadn't seen how delicate this tail plumage was, nor the neck feathers, on these birds before.

As mentioned in previous threads, this is a large bird, around 65–75 cm (25–30 in) long. Its beak measures over 16.7 cm (6.6 in) in the male, and under in the female. Male birds are also slightly heavier weighing around 1.7–2.5 kg (3.7-5.5 lb) while the daintier female tends to weigh around 1.4–1.9 kg (3.1–4.2 lb). Both are larger than the American White Ibis generally attains 1 kg (2.2 lb) in weight.

The Australian White ibis is a wading bird but is happy to prowl on dry land for food. It is also a roosting bird which can look quite a sight due to their size.

Checking out the gutter in front of our place for bugs & edible litter.

The neck feather display of this Australian White ibis is quite obvious in this image.

So is the lovely, lacy tail feather covering in this shot.

The Australian White ibis, or, as it is commonly known, sacred ibis, (although it isn't one, just a sister bird). They are quite an attractive bird when seen fairly close up, with their black lacy tail feather covering & the red/orange patch on the back of their heads. They are supposed to have an unpleasant, strong smell but I haven't noticed it when in close proximity to them.

Bottoms up!!!

The Australian White ibis walks & walks when searching for food.

What is this???? The juvenile Australian White ibis flicks a piece of a carton strapping up in the air. Wonder if it thought it was edible?? Probably had fallen out of someone's recycle bin when it was emptied.

They are also known as Tip Turkeys or Dump Chooks for their seagull-like habits of foraging at rubbish dumps for edibles. Another name for them (which I hadn't heard of before) is Sheep-bird, probably due to their habit of walking in single file while looking for food.