Not many birds are pure white, egrets and spoonbills are notable exceptions. There is also the Scarlet Ibis. I wonder what is behind the thought process that
the dirty look of the ibis is dirt, rather than just feather pigment. I don’t actually know. I have never tried to wash dirt off the whitish feathers of an ibis. Has anyone tried this? It should be easy to find out if their dirty appearance is dirt of some
form. Also the bare patch of feathers along the underside of the arm of the ibis is quite normal. Though I have no idea why this species is deficient in underwing coverts.
Philip
From: Canberrabirds [
On Behalf Of Geoffrey Dabb
Sent: Friday, 7 April, 2023 8:54 AM
To: 'shorty'
Cc: 'Canberrabirds'
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] FW: Royal Spoonbills
By contrast with the snowy white spoonbills, the ibis presented themselves in a range of earth colours. One can only wonder where all of it had come from. A few stories there, I would think.
