Study finds ibis habitat utopia

University of the Sunshine Coast researchers have tracked down the favourite haunts of white ibis in a bid to find more effective ways to stop the smelly, messy native "bin chickens" taking over parks and streets.

The release of their study coincides with a hilarious UniSC video (below) that proposes a new nickname for the much-maligned "dumpster ducks".

University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) bird expert Dr Dominique Potvin is part of a team using satellite tags and solar backpacks to identify the "happy place" of white ibis and has discovered some quirky habits of those who call the City of Moreton Bay home.

Among them is ‘Valkyrie’, who likes to walk from her roost at a park on the Redcliffe foreshore to the bins at her favourite fish and chip shop for a quick bite every day around 7am.

“She’s like clockwork,” Dominique says.

Understanding the birds’ favourite haunts and why they’ve been chosen could the key to finding more effective ways to discourage them from nesting in unwanted areas, according to the UniSC study, which was published in Urban Ecosystems.

See the video

Dominique, a Senior Lecturer in Animal Ecology at UniSC who co-wrote the paper, says the findings confirmed that the closer to waste management sites, the better for the bold scavengers.
“It seems modifying or reducing access to their preferred habitats could be a tool to managing this important, protected but nuisance species,” Dominque says.
The study found while the so-called tip turkeys like to scavenge at waste management facilities, they don’t like to nest there.
Ibis and nest numbers were most abundant within 10km of waste management facilities and, while they increased closer to residential or industrial estates, they decreased the further away these were from rubbish tips.
“We found proximity to refuge sites is the major driver for where they establish colonies,” Dominique says.
“This highlights the need to focus on both foraging and nesting/roosting sites, and minimising the proximity between them, rather than the current preferred form of solely managing nesting colonies through measures that include egg destruction.”

Detailed observations

As part of the study, which was funded by the City of Moreton Bay, the research team surveyed 26 colonies, tracked more than 150 birds in the Moreton Bay region, and used a decade of historical data collected by Council on local populations, as well as data from citizen scientists using the Big City Birds app.

"Like Valkyrie, many tend to follow the same routine,” Dominique says.

Another favourite is Ree Ree, who sets off from her home at Centenary Lakes Park to do a little shopping at a local shopping centre at Caboolture around the same time most days. 

“Surprisingly though, considering how many ibis choose to live near people and … (scavenge) their rubbish, our study found they still prefer to nest in locations with some buffering from people.”

An island to call home

Dominique says ibis utopia is a water-bound island with high tree density – but they don’t like to roost too high – less than 10m is best.
She says the findings suggest we should rethink a growing trend that places housing near wetlands.
Instead, wetlands could lure nesting colonies away from urban areas.
Co-author UniSC Associate Professor in Animal Ecology Ben Gilby says this would involve creating or managing wetlands to maximise ideal nesting conditions.

“As well as complaints about their noise and odour, and even stealing food from humans, nesting colonies can degrade habitats, smother vegetation, cause erosion, pollute waterways and compete with native species for space,” Ben says.
“Few management interventions have so far been successful, and that’s why this research project to better understand the conditions driving ibis habitat selection is so important.”