The Glossy Ibis has become a regular summer visitor to the marshes of southern Maine.   Feeding in huge flocks, their redish-black plumage gives off a shimmer in the sun.  The flock in this photo had 197 birds in it.

Here is where the fun starts . . . somewhere along the Maine coast, in one of there huge flocks of Glossy Ibises is a White-faced Ibis . . . a close relative of the Glossy but a bird that summers west of the Mississippi River.  The White-faced had a red eye (the Glossy has a black eye).  The White-faced has red legs (Glossy’s are gray). Their bills are gray and brown respectively.

So Ingrid and I spend a lot of time scanning Glossy Ibis flocks looking for a single bird . . . we’ve seen the White-faced Ibis twice this month.