WadersBanded Lapwing Bar-tailed Godwit Black-fronted Dotterel Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Hooded Plover Inland Dotterel Lesser Sand Plover Long-toed Stint Oriental Plover Pacific Golden Plover Pectoral Sandpiper Pied Stilt Red-necked Avocet Red-necked Stint Ruff Sanderling Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Sooty Oystercatcher

A small ibis, the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) has an olive-brown distinctive long, curved bill, with blue-grey facial skin and a bordering white line that extends around the eyes.

When viewed from a distance, the Glossy Ibis has a black appearance, although when viewed closeup, the neck has reddish-brown tinge, the body being a bronze-brown colour with a metallic iridescent sheen on the wings. The eyes, legs and feet are brown.

Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Alice Springs Waste Stabilisation Ponds NT
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Alice Springs Waste Stabilisation Ponds NT © Dorothy Latimer

More images on Alice Springs Birds > Birds at the Ponds > Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus).


  • Scientific classification
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Chordata
  • Class: Aves
  • Order: Ciconiiformes
  • Family: Threskiornithidae
  • Genus: Plegadis
  • Species: Plegadis falcinellus

Footnote & References

  1. Plegadis falcinellus (Linnaeus, 1766), Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https:/biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/da100481-e4a7-4d6e-8535-89a748cf52ad
  2. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/3756-Plegadis-falcinellus
  3. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), eBird, https://ebird.org/species/gloibi
  4. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), mdahlem.net, https://mdahlem.net/birds/5/glibis.php

WadersBanded Lapwing Bar-tailed Godwit Black-fronted Dotterel Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Hooded Plover Inland Dotterel Lesser Sand Plover Long-toed Stint Oriental Plover Pacific Golden Plover Pectoral Sandpiper Pied Stilt Red-necked Avocet Red-necked Stint Ruff Sanderling Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Sooty Oystercatcher

BirdsApostlebird Australasian Darter Australasian Figbird Australasian Gannet Australasian Grebe Australasian Pipit Australasian Robins Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) Australasian Wrens Australian Babblers Australian Bustard Australian Chats Australian Magpie Australian Pelican Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) Australian White Ibis Bassian Thrush Black-faced Cormorant Black-faced Woodswallow Black Swan Bowerbirds Brolga Brown Songlark Channel-billed Cuckoo Cinnamon Quail-thrush Cormorants Cuckooshrikes and Allies Dotterels Lapwings Plovers Doves & Pigeons Emu Fairy Martin Finches Grey Fantail Grey Teal Honeyeaters Kingfishers Little Friarbird Little Grassbird Magpie-lark Masked Woodswallow Noisy Pitta Olive Whistler Paradise Riflebird Pardalotes Parrots Pheasant Coucal Pied Butcherbird Rainbow Bee-eater Raptors Rufous Fantail Redthroat Rufous Bristlebird Silver-crowned Friarbird Torresian Crow Waders Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) White-browed Woodswallow White Capped Noddy White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Scrubwren