Nesting ecology of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) in Great Salt Lake, Utah

Mark P. Herzog; Joshua T. Ackerman; C. Alex Hartman; Howard Browers

doi:10.1676/1559-4491-132.1.134

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Nesting ecology of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) in Great Salt Lake, Utah

Mark P. Herzog·Joshua T. Ackerman·C. Alex Hartman·Howard Browers

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Abstract

We studied the nesting ecology of White-faced Ibis ( Plegadis chihi ) at 3 sites within the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA. Ibises built nests in small mounds (mean height = 14.4 ± 4.3 cm) above shallow water (mean depth = 12.0 ± 6.6 cm) located within patchy vegetation (mean percent vegetative cover = 17.2 ± 17.8% vegetative cover) with mean vegetation height of 31.7 ± 9.8 cm. White-faced Ibis typically laid a clutch of 3 or 4 eggs (mean clutch size = 3.08 ± 0.76) and initiated nests over a 50 d period between 24 April 2012 and 12 June 2012. Mean nest success was 38% (95% CI: 31–45%) and hatching success of eggs from successful nests was 76 ± 26%. Although most of the breeding parameters estimated for White-faced Ibis nesting in Utah were comparable to other populations in Oregon and Idaho (USA), nest success may now be lower than has been historically documented.

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Source-reported bounding extent: 40.51379915504413° to 41.80407814427234° latitude; -113.64257812499999° to -111.4453125° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Mark P. Herzog, Joshua T. Ackerman, C. Alex Hartman, Howard Browers. 2020. Nesting ecology of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) in Great Salt Lake, Utah. https://doi.org/10.1676/1559-4491-132.1.134

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