Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis exhibit social tendencies throughout their lifecycle, engaging in collective feeding, roosting, and breeding in cohesive flocks and dense colonies. They exhibit territorial behavior when defending their nesting space from intruders. Typical courtship includes bows, mutual preening, bill-clattering, and cooing near their nests. In flight, glossy Ibis form coordinated flocks, often mistaken for cormorants, although they incorporate more gliding. They usually forage in shallow waters, but can adapt to deeper waters and even swim if necessary. Sunbathing with wings spread is a distinctive behavior for thermoregulation.

This is the most widespread ibis species, breeding in scattered sites in warm regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Atlantic and Caribbean regions of the Americas. It is thought to have originated in the Old World and spread naturally from Africa to northern South America in the 19th century, from where it spread to North America. The glossy ibis was first found in the New World in 1817 (New Jersey). Audubon saw the species just once in Florida in 1832. It expanded its range substantially northwards in the 1940s and to the west in the 1980s. This species is migratory; most European birds winter in Africa, and in North America birds from north of the Carolinas winter farther south. Though generally suspected to be a migratory species in India, the glossy ibis is resident in western India. Birds from other populations may disperse widely outside the breeding season. While generally declining in Europe, it has recently established a breeding colony in southern Spain, and there appears to be a growing trend for the Spanish birds to winter in Britain and Ireland, with at least 22 sightings in 2010. In 2014, a pair attempted to breed in Lincolnshire, the first such attempt in Britain A few birds now spend most summers in Ireland, but as yet there is no evidence of breeding there. In New Zealand, a few birds arrive there annually, mostly in the month of July; recently a pair bred amongst a colony of Royal Spoonbill.

The glossy ibis is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Glossy ibises can be threatened by wetland habitat degradation and loss through drainage, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants. The common name black curlew may be a reference to the glossy ibis and this name appears in Anglo-Saxon literature. Yalden and Albarella do not mention this species as occurring in medieval England.