{"id":58816,"date":"2019-06-25T04:22:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T10:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=58816"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:52:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T20:52:43","slug":"white-faced-ibis-with-a-red-invertebrate-of-some-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/06\/25\/white-faced-ibis-with-a-red-invertebrate-of-some-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"White-faced Ibis With A Red Invertebrate Of Some Kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis foraging with very muddy feet<\/span><\/p>\n

I meant to share this post earlier but because of some temporary server issues I wasn’t able to upload all of the photos until the server settled down.<\/p>\n

I’d gone to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> to photograph birds and with this White-faced Ibis I got a little more than just birds but I didn’t realize it until I saw the photos on my monitor at home. It seems I also photographed an odd, little hitchhiker on the lore and bill of the White-faced Ibis when I took these photos.<\/p>\n

The White-faced Ibis was foraging in a muddy area of the marsh where the water level was low.\u00a0 The ibis would walk a bit, push its bill into the water and mud and quite often it came up with prey of some sort. Here we see the ibis walking in the mud.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis with red invertebrate near the bill<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty-five frames later the first image with the weird looking, red invertebrate on the bill and lore of the White-faced Ibis is taken. I don’t know what it is, I thought at first it might be a leech of some kind and I tried researching red leeches on line and came up with page after page of fishing lures.<\/p>\n

The invertebrate must have gotten onto the bill and lore while the ibis was feeding but I see no evidence of that in any of my photos but I wasn’t photographing the ibis non-stop so I really can’t say when it happened.<\/p>\n

In this photo the red invertebrate is slightly curled.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill<\/span><\/p>\n

In this photo the red invertebrate is coiled up and the ibis is moving forward while foraging and it doesn’t seem bothered by the hitchhiking invertebrate.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill- Close up crop<\/span><\/p>\n

The is a tighter crop of the same photo showing the coiled up, red invertebrate. It seems fleshy, a little bumpy and definitely reddish.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis scratching the invertebrate<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently though having the invertebrate on its bill and lore did bother the White-faced Ibis because about a minute later the ibis stopped walking and scratched at its face and the invertebrate.<\/p>\n

\"White-facedWhite-faced Ibis minus the invertebrate<\/span><\/p>\n

And the next frame shows that the invertebrate is gone. I still have no idea what the red leech-like looking invertebrate was but I found this series of images fascinating and thought you all might enjoy seeing them too. If anyone has any idea what the weird, red invertebrate is I would love to hear from you.<\/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

All the images were taken at f7.1, ISO 500 with my Nikon D500 with the 500mm VR lens and 1.4x TC attached.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems I also photographed an odd, little hitchhiker on the lore and bill of the White-faced Ibis when I took these photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,26,1372],"tags":[4004,5552,7392,4136,3721,5148,7390,7393,7391,4094,2213,1373,6650,4541,2315,313,3996,4095,4340],"class_list":["post-58816","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-bill","tag-coiled","tag-foraging","tag-ibis","tag-ibises","tag-invertebrate","tag-lore","tag-lores","tag-marsh","tag-mud","tag-plegadis-chihi1","tag-red","tag-scratching","tag-summer-3","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-wetlands","tag-white-faced-ibis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t