Looking at Dave Slager's excellent second set of photos, my reaction is that they show one White-faced Ibis and two unidentified Plegadis ibises. They represent two different age groups: the White-faced is at least a year old, so its red iris color is clearly visible. The other two birds are juveniles, hatched this year, as indicated by the big white patches on the neck and head. Because they're so young, eye color and facial skin color aren't useful field marks. One of these juveniles shows a big, exaggerated, pale stripe above the facial skin, suggesting the narrow pale border that an older Glossy Ibis would show; but my initial thought is that this is a marking on feathers, mostly, and that its location coincidentally mimics the pattern of Glossy. I'd be interested to hear more thoughts on these juveniles but I feel that their ID is still an open question.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio





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