{"id":38673,"date":"2016-04-23T06:08:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T12:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=38673"},"modified":"2025-09-25T06:54:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:54:29","slug":"bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-white-faced-ibis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/23\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-white-faced-ibis\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge White-faced Ibis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis in a marsh – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a>. The ibis are in breeding plumage now and if they haven’t begun to nest yet they will do so soon.<\/p>\n

\"BoxBox Elder County White-faced Ibis – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The largest nesting colony of White-faced Ibis occurs right here in Utah in the marshes surrounding the Great Salt Lake. There are mornings when I see dozens of wedges of them in flight when I am on the way to go photographing birds.<\/p>\n

I saw several flocks of them feeding yesterday while on the auto tour route at the refuge but I was only able to get close to five of them that were near the road in some grasses.<\/p>\n

White-faced Ibis get their name from the white border around the lores and eyes shown in this image but that border is not present when they are in nonbreeding plumage or when they are juveniles.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis lift off – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 400, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the White-faced Ibis left the grasses I was able to get a few lift off images but my shutter speed had dropped and while I was able to get the feet, legs, neck, face and bill sharp the wings showed motion blur. At first I didn’t care for the blur but it has grown on me now.<\/p>\n

On another note, I also saw a North American Beaver at the refuge yesterday, my first for that location. It was a rather large beaver and I was only able to get poor quality, back lit images of it which was frustrating but I was still delighted to see it.<\/p>\n

You just never know what you will see while out photographing birds.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158002,"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":[124,27,1148,26,1372],"tags":[4004,5106,4052,4109,3721,5148,4282,4094,1373,165,313,4340],"class_list":["post-38673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","category-white-faced-ibises","tag-adult","tag-breeding-plumages","tag-flight","tag-grasses","tag-ibis","tag-ibises","tag-lift-off","tag-marsh","tag-plegadis-chihi1","tag-spring","tag-wading-birds","tag-white-faced-ibis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-2468.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-a3L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57580,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/05\/03\/white-faced-ibis-perched-on-cattails\/","url_meta":{"origin":38673,"position":0},"title":"White-faced Ibis Perched On Cattails","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't seen or photographed White-faced Ibis perched in the nearly ten years that I have lived here so I was thrilled to have my first opportunity to do so yesterday 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":"White-faced Ibis perched on cattails in the marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge was calling me yesterday morning and I answered that call and photographed several White-faced Ibis from the auto tour route.","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 wing lift, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-faced-ibis-stretching-mia-mcpherson-0657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/white-faced-ibis-stretching-mia-mcpherson-0657.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 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McPherson","date":"January 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On New Year's Day, I photographed two small flocks of White-faced Ibis at Bear River MBR. 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