African Sacred Ibis

The African Sacred Ibis reproduces today in almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa, in western Madagascar, the island of Aldabra and in southeastern Iraq, in the region of Amara.

In the past, this bird nested in Egypt where it was certainly common, but it has disappeared since the mid-19th century. Outside of its original habitat, in Metropolitan France populations, escaped from captivity, have installed themselves in the natural environment along the Atlantic coast, from Brittany to Gironde, since the 80s, and near the Mediterranean coasts, from Roussillon to Camargue, since the 90s. These populations, from zoo parks, then increased to reach 400 nesting couples in the west of France and 75 couples in the south.
The Ibis mainly inhabit open spaces, especially wetlands. The main types of environment used by the African Sacred Ibis mainly concern agricultural areas, wetlands, and food waste dump sites. The analysis of the distribution of this species in its natural environment in South Africa shows that the African Sacred Ibis depends mainly on prairies and grasslands at more than 80%, the rest consisting mainly of freshwater habitats, in particular shallow swamps, but also intertidal zones in estuaries. It has adapted to a wide variety of artificial habitats such as farm reservoirs, sewers, slurry reservoirs and ploughed fields. In France, on the Atlantic coast, its habitat is not much different. Here, the ibis frequent moist meadows with an intermittent presence of livestock, municipal waste dumps as well as pre-marshes or flooded reed beds.