Adults: Back and wings, black with bronze-green sheen Head and throat, bare and black. Upper neck, buff with dark mottling. Balck band across upper breast in females. Stff yellow straw-like feathers on lower neck. Breast, belly and tail, white. Naked yellow patches under wings and on each side of breast. Eye, brown. Bill, black and caruncled. Legs, red. Feet, black. In courtship, breast skin and area behind eye, red.
Immatures: Dull. Straw-like feathers are absent. Head, feathered downy black-white. Bill, short and straight.
Downy Young: White with dusky head and neck. Bill, black. Feet, black.
Other Names (World)
Straw-necked Ibis, Dryweather-bird, Farmer's Friend, Letter-bird
Habitat
Grasslands, sometimes far from water, freshwater wetlands, flooded areas, irrigated pastures, crops, playing fields, airfields, sewerage ponds, croplands, tidal mudflats and occasionally saltmarsh.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet