Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Photo by By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117996012

Dear Readers, if you happen to be in the vicinity of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Barnes in London over the next few days, it’s well worth popping down to see if you can catch a glimpse of the Glossy Ibis. Once upon a time, this was an extremely rare visitor to the UK, but over the past few years the numbers have increased to triple figures, with some birds even attempting to  breedi in Cambridgeshire. This is probably to do with warmer winters in the UK, and the likelihood is that this will become a breeding bird here over the next few years.

Photo by Laurie Boyle athttps://www.flickr.com/photos/92384235@N02/10420836454/

Glossy ibises are surprisingly small birds, only about the size of a curlew, but what they lack in stature, they make up for in glorious iridescent plumage. Interestingly, a bird called a ‘black curlew’ is mentioned in Anglo-Saxon accounts – could it be that Glossy Ibis used to live in the UK, and are simply coming home? The species is the most widespread of the ibis family, living in Australia, Asia, Europe, southern North America and the Caribbean, and most populations migrate from one place to another, so it’s easy to see how a group of birds could end up almost anywhere.

Photo by By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117996008

Another feature of the ibis which helps it to settle in in so many places is its wide range of diet. It can and will eat everything from dragonfly larvae and beetles to fish, baby birds, crabs and molluscs. It loves shallow wetlands, and nests in large trees – if human beings don’t persecute the birds, they will even nest in city parks. It’s this adaptability that gives me hope that it might establish in the UK, just as egrets have done. The establishment of wetland sites at Walthamstow and Woodberry may also encourage them.

Glossy Ibis feeding in the Camargue (Photo By © Giles Laurent, gileslaurent.com, License CC BY-SA, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155084451)

But what does this elegant bird sound like? Rather like how I imagine a dinosaur sounded, I think…

So, I wonder what will arrive in the UK next? Any bets, birdwatching friends?