Mike in the Wild

The ibis is not a bird that I usually think of when out exploring in the Arizona landscape.  I associate it with Africa, and Egypt specifically, somehow familiarizing myself with the bird by seeing its ancient hieroglyphics and statues in a museum, on PBS or in a "National Geographic."  A little research shows that the species known as the African sacred ibis was indeed venerated by the Egyptians, and was associated with the deity Thoth, who among other things, was responsible for writing and mathematics.  As a result, the ibis was featured as the first hieroglyph, and a number of millennium later, its long, down-curved bill was forever embedded in my memory. Ibises form a large family ( threskiornithidae) of wading birds with up to 34 species distributed worldwide.  It's not uncommon to see a few varieties of them in Florida and along the gulf coast, but in the West we mostly have just one - the white-faced ibis.  In this part of the country, they tend to ...