White Faced/Glossy Ibis questions?

[smskelton]

We were visiting Patagonia State Park in April 2021.  The upper part of the lake is marshy and is fed by a live stream.  Marsh birds are common in the are above the lake.  As we walked into the area we met birders who told us that White Faced Ibis were just ahead.  Sure enough there were several Ibis in the area.  Here are several pictures.  I accepted the ID from the others, although the name "White Faced" mystifies me as it seems like a dumb name for what this bird looks like.  These were large birds, and looking on line at the various birding information sites I find it hard to believe that the weight of this Ibis maximizes out at one lb, 2 oz.  The sites say it is between a Crow and a Goose in size.  I took a picture of a second bird in a different area that looks like a Glossy Ibis to me, and this bird was much smaller.  Is the max weight of a White Faced Ibis 18 oz?  Hard to believe.

[Charlie Spencer]

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-faced_Ibis/id

Yep, about a pound and half.  Birds are much lighter than similarly sized mammals, to reduce the weight they have to lift. Even a Great Blue Heron only comes in around five pounds.

The 'White-faced' name came as a comparison to the Glossy Ibis.  It's not a great name but it is a way to differentiate the otherwise similar birds.

Great photos!

Edited November 8, 2021 by Charlie Spencer

[smskelton]

5 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-faced_Ibis/id

Yep, about a pound and half.  Birds are much lighter than similarly sized mammals, to reduce the weight they have to lift. Even a Great Blue Heron only comes in around five pounds.

The 'White-faced' name came as a comparison to the Glossy Ibis.  It's not a great name but it is a way to differentiate the otherwise similar birds.

Great photos!

Thanks for the reply.  Wildlife is really amazing, isn't it.  If you asked people whether two medium sized apples weigh the same as this bird, they wouldn't believe it.  I took to Fugi's out of the refrigerator and weighed them.  Just under 1.2 oz.  It hard to see holding up one pound of butter in a store in one hand and this bird in the other and realizing they weigh about the same.

[Charlie Spencer]

@smskelton, many bird names are misleading.  A lot of issues go back to early naturalists.

Some birds are named after locations or environments where they aren't commonly found.  That location just happens to be where someone first saw that bird.  A Tennessee Warbler or an Orchard Oriole do show up in those places, but they'll turn up in plenty of other locations.  A couple of names reflect places where the species isn't even seen very often.

Some birds are named after physical features that aren't readily visible to 21st century birders.  Early naturalists didn't have binos or digital cameras; they had shotguns.  They'd shoot the unknown bird first, then identify unique features on the carcass.  The red belly on a woodpecker or the ringed neck on a duck are only readily apparent when you have one in your hand.  Those features and names worked when nature study was conducted very differently, but they don't work now when we have less lethal tools and can study critters at a distance.

Honorific names are just useless for ID purposes.  Names like Swainson's Thrush or Bewick's Wren might as well be Rubik's Cube or Newman's Salad Dressing, for all the good they are in separating species in the field.  There's a movement underway in ornithology to replace them with names that are more physically descriptive.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Charlie Spencer