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Glossy/White-faced Ibis Hybrid
Common to Colorado are the White-faced Ibis. They are beautiful birds, long slender necks, burgundy feathers with green wings and a patchwork of faintly colored feathers on their backs. These birds are fairly elusive here in Colorado, and they have been a target of mine for a couple years now. I've seen flocks flying overhead, usually at sunset, and only been able to get remote silhouette shots.
A couple days ago, at the Cottonwood Creek wetland, a good-sized flock of Ibis were hanging out, bathing and preening in the calmer backwaters of the wetland ponds. After some time carefully getting into position, I finally managed to get some nice shots of these beautiful waders. Once they were finally framed in my lens, I realized that at least one, if not a few, looked like Glossy Ibis. A VERY similar bird, the Glossy Ibis is endemic to the Everglades of Florida, and very rarely ventures anywhere else. The key difference is the very thin white border around the Glossies face, where as the White-faced has a much larger border that blends into their burgundy and green head and neck feathers. However the face on the Ibis in front of me was a thin and mottled white line...somewhat different from a Glossy.
The White-faced and Glossy Ibis have only a very small region of the Gulf Coast where they cohabitate a couple times a year. In my research to identify the bird I've captured here, the only photos that looked identical were labeled "White-faced/Glossy Ibis Hybrid". I'm honestly unsure how common a hybrid cross between White-faced and Glossy Ibis is, however given the small overlap in their ranges, I suspect it can't be that much more common in Colorado than the Glossy itself.
Hybridized Ibis
White-faced and Glossy
Cottonwood Creek Wetland
Cherry Creek, Colorado
Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2
Read more on my blog.
Common to Colorado are the White-faced Ibis. They are beautiful birds, long slender necks, burgundy feathers with green wings and a patchwork of faintly colored feathers on their backs. These birds are fairly elusive here in Colorado, and they have been a target of mine for a couple years now. I've seen flocks flying overhead, usually at sunset, and only been able to get remote silhouette shots.
A couple days ago, at the Cottonwood Creek wetland, a good-sized flock of Ibis were hanging out, bathing and preening in the calmer backwaters of the wetland ponds. After some time carefully getting into position, I finally managed to get some nice shots of these beautiful waders. Once they were finally framed in my lens, I realized that at least one, if not a few, looked like Glossy Ibis. A VERY similar bird, the Glossy Ibis is endemic to the Everglades of Florida, and very rarely ventures anywhere else. The key difference is the very thin white border around the Glossies face, where as the White-faced has a much larger border that blends into their burgundy and green head and neck feathers. However the face on the Ibis in front of me was a thin and mottled white line...somewhat different from a Glossy.
The White-faced and Glossy Ibis have only a very small region of the Gulf Coast where they cohabitate a couple times a year. In my research to identify the bird I've captured here, the only photos that looked identical were labeled "White-faced/Glossy Ibis Hybrid". I'm honestly unsure how common a hybrid cross between White-faced and Glossy Ibis is, however given the small overlap in their ranges, I suspect it can't be that much more common in Colorado than the Glossy itself.
Hybridized Ibis
White-faced and Glossy
Cottonwood Creek Wetland
Cherry Creek, Colorado
Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2
Read more on my blog.
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Jrista, cool bird, nice shots! Winter has returned with snow the last two days - ugh.
As your Prez says, expect worse weather from here on!
Jack
As your Prez says, expect worse weather from here on!
Jack
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Jack Douglas said:
Well, our Prez, the narcissistic god-complexed emperor-savior, is an blazing idiot-buffoon, so don't listen to him!
Winter is ending. It's only really been in the last two weeks that things went from still freezing at night, to 65 degrees at night and high 70's during the day. If that only happened to us down here, it's probably still a couple weeks or so for you guys higher north. Life always finds a way to force itself forth again.
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Those are beautiful shots Jrista!jrista said:
Looking at a lot of the posts on this site, I really envy you who can go out and shoot bigger and more exotic birds. With the exception of a few water birds, I only get the tiny traditional ones ... :-\
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The 70D is quite an upgrade from the rebels, I upgraded from a 550D (not sure what Rebel that is, maybe a T3i) and it just amazes me on its capabilities every time I use it, I took a couple of shots at ISO 128,000 and there was about the same “grain” as I would see at ISO 1600 on the 550D, for me it’s still a gazillion miles beyond my capabilities or understanding at present, and I hope it will remain like that for the next 2 years at least, then I’ll be looking for a 5DIII, BUT, the 70D will be my back up and wildlife body then.sedwards said:i just upgraded to a 70D from a T4i. i am LOVIN this new camera
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You have posted a lot of cool images lately dpc! These last ones radiates sound and action.dpc said:
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Eldar said:
Thanks, Eldar! The Ibis are about as rare and exotic as birds get, here. You have been able to capture some wonderful shots of pretty rare birds yourself, like that one duck species. Colorado is actually a pretty poor place for bird photography...we have very short windows of time each year where a wider variety of birds move through, and if you aren't out there every day, checking all the hotspots at different times a day (very difficult when you have a job), you miss most of the more exotic species.
You also seem to have some rather docile birds. I can never get as close as you do.
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jrista said:Glossy/White-faced Ibis Hybrid
Common to Colorado are the White-faced Ibis. They are beautiful birds, long slender necks, burgundy feathers with green wings and a patchwork of faintly colored feathers on their backs. These birds are fairly elusive here in Colorado, and they have been a target of mine for a couple years now. I've seen flocks flying overhead, usually at sunset, and only been able to get remote silhouette shots.
A couple days ago, at the Cottonwood Creek wetland, a good-sized flock of Ibis were hanging out, bathing and preening in the calmer backwaters of the wetland ponds. After some time carefully getting into position, I finally managed to get some nice shots of these beautiful waders. Once they were finally framed in my lens, I realized that at least one, if not a few, looked like Glossy Ibis. A VERY similar bird, the Glossy Ibis is endemic to the Everglades of Florida, and very rarely ventures anywhere else. The key difference is the very thin white border around the Glossies face, where as the White-faced has a much larger border that blends into their burgundy and green head and neck feathers. However the face on the Ibis in front of me was a thin and mottled white line...somewhat different from a Glossy.
The White-faced and Glossy Ibis have only a very small region of the Gulf Coast where they cohabitate a couple times a year. In my research to identify the bird I've captured here, the only photos that looked identical were labeled "White-faced/Glossy Ibis Hybrid". I'm honestly unsure how common a hybrid cross between White-faced and Glossy Ibis is, however given the small overlap in their ranges, I suspect it can't be that much more common in Colorado than the Glossy itself.
Hybridized Ibis
White-faced and Glossy
Cottonwood Creek Wetland
Cherry Creek, Colorado
Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2
Read more on my blog.
That is a beautiful bird and wonderful captured. Thank you for your very informative posts!
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I´m not sure you would say that if you joined me on a trip. It often takes me a couple of hours of very careful movements and lots of sit-still-and-be-patient time to get them close enough. Some duck species are easy thoughjrista said:You also seem to have some rather docile birds. I can never get as close as you do.
The other day I spotted an Eurasian Teal, which is rather rare this far north. It was too far away, but I thought he would come my way, so I sat patiently in a spot, very quiet and still. After a long time I heard a low whisper next to me and I had a giant male swan studying med from 4-5 feet away, with his head and wings held in their aggressive posture and I was sitting on my but, with the tripod and 600mm over my lap. You don´t mess with them! First instinct was to run, second was to sit still, which i did. After a while he lost interest and glided away. Puuhhh! An hour later I could conclude that I would not get an image of the Eurasian Teal ...
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Eldar said:I´m not sure you would say that if you joined me on a trip. It often takes me a couple of hours of very careful movements and lots of sit-still-and-be-patient time to get them close enough. Some duck species are easy thoughjrista said:You also seem to have some rather docile birds. I can never get as close as you do.
The other day I spotted an Eurasian Teal, which is rather rare this far north. It was too far away, but I thought he would come my way, so I sat patiently in a spot, very quiet and still. After a long time I heard a low whisper next to me and I had a giant male swan studying med from 4-5 feet away, with his head and wings held in their aggressive posture and I was sitting on my but, with the tripod and 600mm over my lap. You don´t mess with them! First instinct was to run, second was to sit still, which i did. After a while he lost interest and glided away. Puuhhh! An hour later I could conclude that I would not get an image of the Eurasian Teal ...
You and I seem to have similar tactics and experiences.
I spend hours getting close. I've sat, covered in camo, on the muddy shores of various wetlands and ponds and lakes, for hours for birds to get comfortable and close. I think that's just the bird photographer's life...patience. To get the shots of the Ibis, I spent over an hour getting close and waiting for them to do interesting things. I spent about 40 minutes getting some shots of this beautiful Black-crowned Night Heron. It's just how it is...it takes time, and most of the time, you end up with nothing for your efforts.
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jrista said:Eldar said:I´m not sure you would say that if you joined me on a trip. It often takes me a couple of hours of very careful movements and lots of sit-still-and-be-patient time to get them close enough. Some duck species are easy thoughjrista said:You also seem to have some rather docile birds. I can never get as close as you do.
The other day I spotted an Eurasian Teal, which is rather rare this far north. It was too far away, but I thought he would come my way, so I sat patiently in a spot, very quiet and still. After a long time I heard a low whisper next to me and I had a giant male swan studying med from 4-5 feet away, with his head and wings held in their aggressive posture and I was sitting on my but, with the tripod and 600mm over my lap. You don´t mess with them! First instinct was to run, second was to sit still, which i did. After a while he lost interest and glided away. Puuhhh! An hour later I could conclude that I would not get an image of the Eurasian Teal ...
You and I seem to have similar tactics and experiences.
My equipment is a pop-up hunting blind, a folding camp chair, a thermos of tea, and assorted camera gear. After a while they forget about the hunting blind....
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