Bin Chickens

 

I remember a time when the Australian White Ibis wasn't seen in Sydney. 

Then they appeared in the CBD.

Now, they are everywhere.

Like most people, I haven't been a great fan of them. Being quite large birds, they do large poops which always looks really messy and uninviting. They also scavange in bins for food so they make a mess that way as well. They also just look ugly and pre-historic because of their bald heads and necks.

At some point I found out that they migrated to the city because of habitat loss in their natural range and while I still find them messy, I had to admire their resourcefulness and survival instinct.

There is a theory that a liberty flock at Taronga Zoo mixed with some birds who had migrated to the city during drought and encouraged the refugees to stay, as explained in Wikipedia

"The relationship between birds originating from the Taronga flock and any influx of inland birds into Sydney is poorly known, but it is speculated that human-habituated flocks originating from the zoo may have encouraged some visiting flocks to stay in Sydney, with the two populations likely merging to some degree. Resident Sydney birds may have influenced newcomers fleeing from inland drought to adapt to new food sources in the city and to accept close proximity to humans."

These ibis would naturally live in marsh areas and build rafts of sticks for their nests. In the city they build in palm trees (and maybe other places but palm trees are where I see them) 

This leads me to reflect on the certainty that their poo would be less messy if it was on a floating stick raft instead of falling from the height of a palm tree.

Today I was driving past a construction site where there was a large, muddy puddle and I noticed four ibis trying to forage in the puddle. There were not going to be any fish or frogs or anything edible at all in the puddle and I was hit by a wave of sadness to see them engaged in the intuitive behaviour of thousands of years with no possible benefit.

Wading in a muddy puddle and nesting in a tree is such a watered down version of  raising their young in a marsh, fishing around the colony and wading in the diverse plants, birds and insects of a marsh. I still can't say I love them but their image problem is really because  they are in the wrong environment, not bbecause they are inherently unattractive. They really do deserve to be able to live their natural lifestyle.