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African Sacred Ibises are medium-sized aquatic birds with an all-white plumage. Only the head, with the very long, curved bill, and back of the neck are black. The legs and feet are pinkish-grey. During the breeding season, African Sacred Ibises have black filamentary inner secondary plumes that show clearly on their rumps. These plumes look like black tail feathers when the birds are in eclipse. The tips of the flight feathers are black; the underwings show a long, narrow stripe of naked skin.

African Sacred Ibises are no longer considered to be a conspecific with the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca).

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the African Sacred Ibis is available HERE .

Originally found in huge numbers in Egypt along the river Nile as both sedentary populations and migratory breeders, African Sacred Ibises were extirpated there by around 1850. In modern times, although their wintering quarters still remain in sub-Saharan tropical Africa, from in the West to Eritrea in the East, the migratory population travels southwards, along the East African highlands towards South Africa. There is also a population on Madagascar. With a few exceptions, the species is largely absent from the Congo Basin and much of the deserts of south-western Africa. Some vagrants are found around the Arabian peninsula. There are also introduced breeding populations in some European Mediterranean countries.

In Arabia African Sacred Ibises are vagrants. Sightings have been reported from various parts of the coastline. In Oman African Sacred Ibises can sometimes be seen along parts of the South-east coast and the North coast, especially around the Musandam peninsula.

African Sacred Ibises are usually found in mudplains, swamps and the deltas of major rivers.

We have not seen an African Sacred Ibis in Oman yet. The photos shown below were taken in Africa. All photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by M. Eaton.