by Nicholas Munday, Adelaide Urban Birding

Welcome to another story in our ‘What bird is that?’ series, about feathered friends in your Adelaide Park Lands.

The subject of this article is striking, completely unmistakable and, in some people’s eyes, unwelcome: the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccus). 

This author, it must be said, is not of the latter view, and indeed, thinks that there is much to admire about the humble ‘bin chicken’ or ‘tip turkey’. (Athough, it must also be said that these birds are about the least photogenic of all the birds found in Your Adelaide Park Lands.)

Ibis are wading birds in the family, Threskiornithidae — part of a broader family that includes the similarly striking (and arguably better-looking) Spoonbills. 

Australia is home to three species of ibis, but of them, the Australian White Ibis is by far the best-known and most common in urban environments. The other two species, the Straw-Necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) and the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), are largely confined to wetlands, although the Straw-Necked Ibis is common in agricultural areas.

Similarly, while the Australian White Ibis commonly occurs within close proximity to water, this is by no means always the case. Where floodplains are scarce, a well-watered oval is a worthy substitute.

The Australian White Ibis is markedly similar to, and occasionally considered synonymous with, the Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) of North Africa and the Middle-East, although most classifications treat it as a separate species to its Australian counterpart. 

Like all Ibis, Australian White Ibis have long, downward-curved beaks that are well-suited for probing wetlands for invertebrate and small vertebrate prey. The heads of the adult birds are almost completely naked, sporting dark, scaly skin, although juvenile birds often retain white feathering up to the bill.

While the Ancient Egyptians considered Ibis to be sacred, the same sentiment has clearly not carried into the Australian lexicon, where they are best known as squalid, dumpster-diving scavengers. 

‘Bin chicken’ may be an unflattering moniker, but not wholly inaccurate either (the Ibis that patrol the Veale Gardens in Park 21 certainly live up to this description).

Prior to taking up residence in our cities, the Australian White Ibis once had a much better reputation. As this more than 50-year-old film from the ABC demonstrates, there was a time when Ibis were considered fascinating ‘decorative’ birds, worthy of special attention (and, to an extent, this holds true for some of their close relatives that are yet to exploit urban environments). 

In unmodified environments, Ibis perform vital ecosystem functions as mid-order predators. By and large, their preferred habitats include this country’s more sensitive environments: floodplains, wetlands, and rivers. The recent expansion of White Ibis in urban areas follows the decline (or collapse) of many of their natural habitats during the millennium drought. 

Despite the historic drought ending well over a decade ago, fascinatingly, surveys of wild birds reveal very, very little interaction between birds that now frequent urbanised environments and those that remain in natural wetland environments. It seems that the Ibis of Your Adelaide Park Lands are now true urbanites!

Love them or hate them, the Australian White Ibis has become a staple of Adelaide’s avifauna. 

Within your Adelaide Park Lands, they can be found regularly and in significant numbers at Park 11 (the Adelaide Botanic Garden, in particular), Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (Park 14), Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16), and Veale Park / Walyu Yarta (Park 21).

Read more articles in our ‘What Bird is That?’ series here.

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Nicholas Munday is an environment and planning lawyer with degrees in law and science (evolutionary biology and ecology) from the University of Adelaide. 

He has a strong interest in biodiversity conservation and runs the ‘Adelaide Urban Birding’ Instagram account (@adelaideurbanbirding), dedicated to his photography of native birds in the Adelaide metropolitan area.

In his free time, Nicholas is well-known in the Adelaide choral music and theatre communities, and also enjoys bushwalking, writing, and, of course, photography.  

The opinions expressed in this article are entirely those of the author. This author is not affiliated with the Adelaide Park Lands Association.