#crested ibis

[extinctionstories]

Two hundred years ago, the wetlands of Japan rustled with pink-tinged feathers. Tall, pale birds stepped carefully through reeds and iris, hunting small fish, crabs, and frogs. 

Nipponia nippon, it would be dubbed by the national ornithological society, a bird emblematic of its country. The Crested Ibis. The Toki. The Peach Flower Bird.

Marshes slowly changed to rice fields, with farmers who resented the toki for ruining crops; to kill the birds was outlawed, so children chased them from the fields, singing warnings.

The doors of the country were pried open. Laws changed. Farmers bought their first guns, their sights set on birds who were no longer protected. The toki, the red-crowned crane, and many others began to suffer. But the worst was yet to come.

Pesticides are indiscriminate killers. The poison sprayed to kill a beetle can travel up the foodchain, toppling a cascade of larger animals, or affecting their ability to reproduce. It was reckless pesticide use that nearly wiped out the Bald Eagle. In the rice fields, the peach-flower-bird had little chance. 

In 1981, Japan’s last five living toki were removed from a wild that had become too dangerous for them.

I tell a lot of sad stories here, about mistakes we’ve made and animals we’ve lost. This isn’t one of those. This is a story about one of those precious times when we were able to fix the things we’d broken. 

A joint effort between Japan & China, and the discovery of seven more birds in that country, led to a successful breeding program, which in 2008 saw the first ibises fly free again in Japan. Today, at least 5000 toki exist in the world.

The last wild-born toki, one of those captured in 1981, lived almost long enough to see her species’ return. Reaching the equivalent age of a centenarian human, she died in 2003—not of old age, but injury after throwing herself against her cage door. 

Her name was ‘Kin’. ‘Gold’. 

Mended things can never be as whole as they once were. There will always be cracks that show, weak spots that remain vulnerable. Yet, like the shining seams of a kintsugi piece, these scars speak an important truth: here is a thing that someone chose to save; handle with care.

The title of this painting is ‘Restoration’. It is gouache on 22x30 inch watercolor paper, and is part of my series 'Conservation Pieces', exploring the effort to preserve endangered birds.

[scottpartridge]

The Crested Ibis is week one of the @migratorymay November 2024 prompt list, featuring birds of China .

[alonglistofbirds]

[2765/11080] Crested ibis - Nipponia nippon

Also known as: Toki

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills)

Photo credit: Peng Su via Macaulay Library

[metal-milk]

Tried to draw Toki from Kemono Friends today!

[meulahke]

Maid day!

[phildawg]

Toki from Kemono Friends but she has real eyes (I like the concept of giving anime characters animal eyes, I think it's funny)

[nature-nerd-sarah]

Posting birds until I hit post limit: Crested ibis

[spicydonutz]

Hehe

[five-crows-in-a-trenchcoat]

You should really come to Australia to see the birds bc we’ve got some real bangers such as:

• eyebrows

• *camera snap noise* yep. That’s going in my cringe compilation and on my 10 cent coin

• chuckles mcgee

• bin chicken

• pride flag crackhead

• actual homewrecker

• bird we lost a war to

• clown so clown-like you can be called after it and it means you are a clown

• shin tsukimi

[acesrockz]

ALPACA-TOBER!

DAY 3!

Oh! A surprise visitor!

[bjekkergauken]

Ibis contrasts

[podartists]

Crested Ibis

[rlyehtaxidermist]

new favourite evolutionary adaptation: the australian white ibis - colloquially known as the bin chicken - has reportedly learned how to hunt the highly invasive cane toad by tormenting it until it runs out of poison

[na-bird-of-the-day]

As promised, here are some photos from the national aviary in Pittsburgh! Saw lots of wonderful birds there.

I also took a boat tour up in Maine and saw lots of Atlantic puffins! I also saw some razorbills, common eiders, common loons, Wilson's storm-petrels, an Arctic tern, and a black guillemot. And plenty of gulls of course!

[proton-wobbler]

Round 2, Poll 19

Madagascar Ibis vs Red-crested Turaco

sources under cut

Madagascar Ibis

eBird Sightings - 685

IUCN Status - Near Threatened

Location: Africa - Madagascar

“Has mohawk, likes to crabwalk, best birb <3”

Red-crested Turaco

eBird Sightings - 106

IUCN Status - Least Concern

Location: Africa - Northwest Angola

“looks like a mango”

Images: Ibis (Chris Venetz); Turaco (Dubi Shapiro)

Stats pulled from Birds of the World

[pngkatios]