{"id":11088,"date":"2013-11-24T05:21:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T12:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=11088"},"modified":"2025-07-28T06:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:14:59","slug":"white-ibis-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/24\/white-ibis-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","title":{"rendered":"White Ibis In Breeding And Nonbreeding Plumage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WhiteWhite Ibis adult in nonbreeding plumage – Nikon D200, handheld, f9, 1\/400, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 340mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There isn’t much of a change between the plumage in breeding and nonbreeding White Ibis, primarily the differences are in the legs, bill and lores. The bill, legs and lores\u00a0of a nonbreeding White Ibis is a salmon color. In some light they almost look a\u00a0bubble gum pink.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Ibis adult in breeding plumage\u00a0– Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 145mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

In breeding plumage the legs, lores and bill become a bright red or geranium color and the lower part of the bill becomes dark which can extend two thirds of the way up the bill.<\/p>\n

The feathers remain white and the eyes remain sky blue regardless of the plumage phase the adult White Ibis are in.<\/p>\n

Both of these White Ibis were photographed at Fort De Soto County Park<\/span><\/a> as they foraged in the Gulf of Mexico, the ibis in breeding plumage was photographed in early April and the nonbreeding ibis was photographed in mid June.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my White Ibis photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There isn’t much of a change between the plumage in breeding and nonbreeding White Ibis, primarily the differences are in the legs, bill and lores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,364],"tags":[4004,5552,4053,4213,10982,7754,4077,3721,6220,7391,4246,3980,4901,313,3996,478],"class_list":["post-11088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-white-ibises","tag-adult","tag-bill","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-eudocimus-albus","tag-forage","tag-foraged","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-ibis","tag-legs","tag-lores","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-pinellas-county","tag-surf","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-white-ibis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-ibis-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-4000.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2SQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52171,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/19\/white-faced-ibis-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":11088,"position":0},"title":"White-faced Ibis in Breeding and Nonbreeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In just a few weeks the White-faced Ibis that are in breeding plumage right now will begin to molt into their nonbreeding plumage and I thought this might be a good time to show some of the differences.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-faced Ibis in breeding plumage all fluffed up, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-0702.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-0702.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-0702.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-0702.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35519,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/02\/13\/adult-and-juvenile-white-faced-ibis\/","url_meta":{"origin":11088,"position":1},"title":"Adult and juvenile White-faced Ibis","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought a comparison of adult and juvenile White-faced Ibis might be interesting for those of you who aren't familiar with this western species of ibis.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult White-faced Ibis feeding at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/white-faced-ibis-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/white-faced-ibis-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched adult White-faced Ibis in breeding plumage, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/white-faced-ibis-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/white-faced-ibis-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/white-faced-ibis-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/white-faced-ibis-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14910,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/05\/07\/a-white-ibis-in-dark-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":11088,"position":3},"title":"White Ibis In Dark Water","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When I lived in Tampa, Florida the Whites Ibises were often called \"Lawn Chickens\" because they would feed in people's yards in big flocks.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White Ibis in dark water, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-ibis-feeding-green-water-2-mia-mcpherson-0194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-ibis-feeding-green-water-2-mia-mcpherson-0194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-ibis-feeding-green-water-2-mia-mcpherson-0194.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-ibis-feeding-green-water-2-mia-mcpherson-0194.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38673,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/23\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-white-faced-ibis\/","url_meta":{"origin":11088,"position":4},"title":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge White-faced Ibis","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For weeks I have been seeing White-faced Ibis fly overs and yesterday I had my first opportunity to photograph them for the year at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Box Elder County White-faced Ibis at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-2468.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-2468.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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