Hobbies And Interests
Bills
The scarlet ibis has a diet that includes prey such as mollusks, fish and insects. Their long bills, which are curved with a sharp point, help them to collect this prey from the muddy bottoms of shallow bodies of water. Scarlet ibis use touch to guide their bills toward their prey. These birds can also preen their feathers effectively with these long, pointed bills. The sharp tip of the bill can also be used to attack other birds when the scarlet ibis is defending its territory.
Legs and Feet
Its long legs are useful to the scarlet ibis for wading through water, mud and marshy environments. The scarlet ibis is a strong swimmer. Its partially webbed feet help it to move through water. However, the scarlet ibis is also a skillful flier. The reason that this bird does not have fully webbed feet is that toes need to be separated to some degree for it to be able to perch in trees.
Neck
As the scarlet ibis has long legs, its neck has also adapted to be long to allow the bird's head to reach into water and the mud below it for food. One scarlet ibis will entwine its neck with the neck of another scarlet ibis as a form of greeting. This bird flies with its neck outstretched to make its shape more aerodynamic.
Social Behavior
The scarlet ibis usually lives in a flock of up to 30 others. However, large breeding colonies containing thousands of birds can form. Large flocks provide the scarlet ibis with higher level of protection from predators. Roosting and nesting in trees helps to protect groups of birds from threats in the water such as turtles and caimans. However, the scarlet ibis can become prey for predators such as large cats while they are in trees.
Scarlet ibis fly in v-shaped groups, even when they are traveling the short distance from the trees they roost in to the water they feed in. This provides them with the safety of the flock and decreased wind resistance from the v-shaped flying formation.