Northern bald ibis
The northern bald ibis was once widespread across the Middle East, northern Africa, southern and central Europe. In 2019 there were about 700 wild birds remaining in southern Morocco, and fewer than 10 in Syria. The reasons for the species’ long-term decline are unclear, but hunting, loss of foraging habitat, and pesticide poisoning have been implicated.
About Northern bald ibis in brief
The northern bald ibis was once widespread across the Middle East, northern Africa, southern and central Europe. It disappeared from Europe over 300 years ago, although reintroduction programs in the region are underway. In 2019 there were about 700 wild birds remaining in southern Morocco, and fewer than 10 in Syria, where their number declined in the following years, maybe to zero. The reasons for the species’ long-term decline are unclear, but hunting, loss of foraging habitat, and pesticide poisoning have been implicated in the rapid loss of colonies. The ibises are gregarious, long-legged wading birds with long down-curved bills. Along with the spoonbills they form one subfamily within the family Threskiornithidae. They have unfeathered faces and heads, breed on cliffs rather than in trees, and prefer arid habitats to the wetlands used by their relatives. The bird’s face and head are dull and red, the long, curved bill and the red gut are red and dull. It has powerful gut beats, shallow wing beats and a wispy ruff on the hind legs. It is a large, glossy black bird, with a 125–135cm wingspan and an average of 1.135cm long. The alternative common name waldrapp is German for forest raven, the equivalent of Corus sylvaticus by the Latin of Corvoo of Gesner. The species was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner in his Historiae animalium in 1555, and given the binomial name Upupa eremita by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 Systema Naturae.
It was moved to its current genus by the German herpetologist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832. The two Geronticus species differ from other ibises in that they have unfeadhered face and heads. The only other member of the genus, G. calvus, of southern Africa, is the only other species of ibis in the world. There are about 2000 northern bald Ibises living in captivity, and about 2000 Northern bald ibises live in captivity. The birds are not currently classed as separate subspecies, but there is a single mutation in the cytochrome b gene of their mitochondrial DNA. This mutation is thought to be the reason for the rapid decline of colonies in recent decades. They are a migratory bird found in barren, semi-desert or rocky habitats, often close to running water. They typically lays two to three eggs in a stick nest, and feeds on lizards, insects, and other small animals. There is a violet iridescence, and there is an iridescent plumage on the bird’s hind legs, with violet ruffy ruffs and a bronze ruff. It gives the bird a bronze, bronze and bronze colour, and gives it the nickname of the hermit ibis, which is a bird of the desert.
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This page is based on the article Northern bald ibis published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
