{"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[4004,5552,7392,4136,3721,5148,7390,7393,7391,4094,2213,1373,6650,4541,2315,313,3996,4095,4340],"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":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-with-invertebrate-on-bill-mia-mcpherson-6199.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fiE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105728,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/09\/01\/white-faced-ibis-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":58816,"position":0},"title":"White-faced Ibis at Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday morning at Bear River MBR I could have been found photographing a flock of White-faced Ibis from the north side of 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":"Flock of White-faced Ibis at Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/white-faced-ibis-flock-preening-mia-mcpherson-8545.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/white-faced-ibis-flock-preening-mia-mcpherson-8545.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/white-faced-ibis-flock-preening-mia-mcpherson-8545.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/white-faced-ibis-flock-preening-mia-mcpherson-8545.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119572,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/08\/white-faced-ibis-do-overwinter-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":58816,"position":1},"title":"White-faced Ibis Do Overwinter At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia 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. It isn't unusual at all for this ibis species to overwinter at the 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":"Winter White-faced Ibis at Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/white-faced-ibis-winter-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-0632.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/white-faced-ibis-winter-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-0632.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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 in breeding plumage, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-faced-ibis-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2339.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-faced-ibis-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2339.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-faced-ibis-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2339.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/white-faced-ibis-perched-mia-mcpherson-7400.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-perched-mia-mcpherson-7400.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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