Buff-necked Ibis

About the Buff-necked Ibis

The buff-necked ibis (Theristicus caudatus), also known as the white-throated ibis, is a fairly large ibis found widely in open habitats of eastern and northern South America. It formerly included the similar black-faced ibis as a subspecies, but that species is almost entirely restricted to colder parts of South America, has a buff (not dark grey) lower chest, and lacks the contrasting large white wing-patches.

The buff-necked ibis was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux based on a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Scolopax caudatus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The buff-necked ibis is now placed in the genus Theristicus that was erected by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler... Wikipedia →