Another Nice Wader in the Area

I have written about my quest to see as many species of birds in Mecklenburg county as I could in 2014. I ended up in a tie with the previous high number of 205 species. One bird I missed that year was the white ibis, a species I figured I could find with a little bit of hard work. It wasn’t to be.

Yesterday I got word that a probable white ibis was at an old cow pond in Mint Hill. I hustled over and sure enough, an immature white ibis was wading around in the shrinking pond with a great egret. Only about eight months late, but it was still nice to see this species that is pretty tough to find in the county.

The immature bird below is pretty much in the same plumage as the Mint Hill bird from yesterday. The vast majority of white ibis that come into the Piedmont during the summer are immature / juvenile birds in this brown and white plumage.

Immature White Ibis by Taylor Piephoff

The adult birds, one of which is shown below, more accurately reflects the name of the bird. the plumage is all white except for solid black wing-tips that are seen well only in flight.

Adult White Ibis by Taylor Piephoff