Glossy ibis

Medium sized, dark on the body and legs, with a characteristic downward curved beak. Only at close range and with sufficient lighting does it appear coppery (crimson or brown) and then also the metallic green and purple tints on its wings. It flies with its neck and legs extended.

It spreads across all continents. In Eastern Europe it reaches the central parts of the continent every spring to nest, but its distribution is discontinuous (it is absent from large areas). Eastern European birds have been found to winter mainly in West Africa (below the Sahara).

It prefers freshwater, relatively stagnant wetlands, although it is also recorded in brackish water wetlands.

In Lesvos it will be found in freshwater marshes, riverbeds, but in large numbers in the seasonal troughs formed below Kalloni’s salt pan and often in Messa, the bed of the river Tsiknias, the bed of Faneromeni (Sigri) and the marsh of Skala Kalloni. Because freshwater wetlands are absent from our island in autumn, we will only observe it in large numbers during the spring migration and only a few individuals at the end of summer (when it starts to return south).

• It forages in small groups where one bird is close to the other very often together with herons (Little egret).It feeds by dipping its large beak in the mud on the bottom or by waving it open in the water where it can find dragonfly nymphs and other aquatic insects, worms, snails and often tadpoles.
• It is mature to breed from the age of two years or older.
• It has shown a large increase in population and spread in western Europe and also in North America since the 1970s.
• In our country (Northern Greece), however, as well as in other Balkan countries where it breeds, it has experienced a large decline: from 2,000 pairs before 1970, to 150-200 in the early 2000s and 220-300 in 2015.
• At the end of summer, adult birds leave Europe first, followed by the young birds migrating later.
• The oldest Age of the Glossy ibis reached 20 years!