Fifteen ibises

I went to a nearby urban river late in the day to see what I could photograph in the "golden hour" when the sun starts descending and providing warm colors. This is the time of day when birds, individuals or in flocks, start choosing a place to spend the night. I got some fairly close-up shots of Canada geese starting to settle in. Shots of mallard ducks landing in the water were rather uninteresting. The sun had set and I started walking back home.

I'm getting used to a new Olympus telephoto lens and learning to get sharp photos at greater distances. This lens isn't especially good for low light situations, so I was not sure how any images after sunset would come out. Flocks of birds went flying by and I shot pictures not even knowing what I was seeing. When I looked at my pictures the next day I was very pleased to find I had captured silhouetted images of fifteen birds, and quite surprised to see the curved bills of ibises! Their wingtips and bills and feet stand out in sharp contrast to the darkening sky.

I have only been seeing ibises in our area for about the last year - I had only ever seen white ones at zoos. In our area we have White-faced Ibises, which are quite beautiful with iridescent feathers. Despite the name, they seem to have pinkish areas of skin between the bill and the eye. Their long, curving bill is quite different from any other birds and you might think that would enable them to dig on the bottom without immersing their whole head, but not so. I often see them dunk their head completely under.

Also, I had never seen more than one ibis at a time. So it was quite a treat to capture a picture of fifteen gathered at the end of the day.

I picture this image in a family room, a cabin, or maybe in an office that looks out on a place where water birds gather. This picture and others are available as high resolution prints (without watermark) from our Pixels gallery by clicking here.