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Posted by John Boyd for Pete on 15:43:54 12/29/13
On Monday, December 16th, 2013, I observed (no photos) what appeared to be
a white ibis/scarlet ibis hybrid in Lake Ingraham on Cape Sable, foraging
with a number of other White Ibis and Roseate Spoonbills. I am aware that
reports of these birds used to be much more common in southern Florida but
the last confirmed report with photos I know of was from November, 2009 in
south Dade near the C-111 canal, not far from the entrance to ENP. I am
very curious if others have seen similar birds recently? My knowledge of
these birds is that the introduced scarlet ibis in Miami in the mid 1960 s
crossbred with white ibis to produce these hybrids but this could be false.
The pink coloration on this bird was only evident on the wings (both) and
was more so evident when in flight. Could this possibly be a gene that is
fading out with the WHIB in southern Florida? Or possibly this is a trait
that shows up naturally in WHIB? I don t know but am interested in any
insight others may have. Also - I found a great article on how the scarlet
ibis were introduced in Miami in the Audubon Magazine March-April 1965,
p.84-85.
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