Behaviour: Strongly gregarious in all activities and at all seasons. It usually occurs in small groups to flocks of hundreds. It often associates with the Straw-necked Ibis. Flight: Fast and straight with neck extended making use of air currents to glide and circle at considerable height. Voice: Hoarse drawn out croaking grunt. Food: With their long bill they probe and pluck for grasshoppers and other insects, frogs, fishes, crustaceans, marine worms and molluscs in swamps or on the margins or streams and lakes which adjoin grasslands. Ibis are also a frequent scavenger at many garbage tips, fowlyards, pigpens and city parks. Nests: Usually constructed in trees or bushes at swamps but sometimes on the ground. Parents share nest building, incubation and care of the young. The usual clutch is two to four dull white eggs, which hatch in 20 to 25 days. |
Breeding: Though strongly influenced by local conditions, breeding usually occurs between February and May in the tropical north and between August and November in the south-east like Dandenong Valley Park. Ibis breed in very large dense colonies, often in company with other waterbirds.
Range: Found over much of northern and eastern Australia from the Kimberley to Eyre Peninsula. It also occurs in the far south-west of Western Australia and in northern Tasmania. Elsewhere it occurs from south-east Asia across to New Guinea and New Zealand. It is strongly nomadic. There has recently been marked expansion in range and numbers, especially in coastal regions of the south-east of Australia. Habitat: Shallow waterways, wet meadows, rubbish tips and all but the most saline of wetlands. |
