I am very sure that I have seen a threesome
free flying over MRR2 - Kemensah Zoo Melawati section late November. Jason Tan
says that there is a colony in Zoo Negara but I have no recall seeing them.
There are some in KL birdpark but I believe they have all died since. Possible
sighting is at Kuala Gula and northern coastal swamp areas. The ones I sighted and shot here are in Prek Toal bird sanctuary in Combodia. There is still small flocks that comes a visiting and hopefully they will nest amongst the Openbills, Pelicans and Darters there.
The Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) is a species of wading bird of the ibis family Threskiornithidae which breeds in South Asia and Southeast Asia from Pakistan to India, Sri Lanka east up to Japan. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays 2–4 eggs.
The male and the female have the same characteristics. It is the medium sized bird. The mouth is long with small black round curve. The head and the neck have the black smooth skin. When it does not grow up, the feathers on the neck are white and the head has dark brown thin hair. When it grows up, the hair will fade away and it will have only dark blue or black skin. The Black-Headed Ibis is the bird that has a very short tail. The leg is black, the eyes are black, and feathers on the body are white. The Black-Headed Ibis has a hometown in North Africa, India, Sri Lanka, the north and the east of Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. For Thailand, it can be found in the Central, the Northeast, and the South.The Black-Headed Ibis eats shell, crab, fish, shrimp and some kind of insect.
They stay in a troop. It normally is quiet and will not make noise. It seeks for the food in the swamp or the muddy seashore. It seeks for the food together with other bird; for example, Egret, Open-billed Stork, and Stork.The Black-Headed Ibis breeds in the rainy season approximately in August and September. It builds several nests together on the same tree. The nest is made of the small branches weaving together on the tree which is not very far from the swamp. It lays 2 to 4 eggs each time. It is the bird that has a very small number and can rarely be found.
Adults are typically 75 cm long and white-plumaged, with some greyer areas on the wings. The bald head, the neck and legs are black. The thick curved bill is dusky yellow. Sexes are similar, but juveniles have whiter necks and a black bill. It inhabits freshwater marshes, lakes, rivers, flooded grasslands, paddy fields, tidal creeks, mudflats, saltmarshes and coastal lagoons, usually in extreme lowlands, but occasionally up to 950 m, tending to be nomadic in response to water levels and feeding conditions.
It is vulnerable to drainage, disturbance, pollution, agricultural conversion, hunting and collection of eggs and nestlings from colonies. A combination of these factors has probably caused the decline.
I may have also seen the Ibis quite awhile back but over the Akleh highway. Did not recognized them as the normal painted storks that are always on the lamps.
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