After being absent as a regular breeding species for almost a century, in the 1990s the Glossy Ibis returned to Spain. Although it started in the Ebro delta, the recovery has been focussed on the Coto Donaña where the population rose from seven pairs in 1996 to an astonishing 2,000 pairs in 2009. From a scarce visitor a few decades ago the Glossy Ibis has become a species you can reasonably expect to see anywhere in marshlands that border the Guadalquivir and elsewhere.  

If such a return seems unlikely after an absence of a century, then the reappearance of a species after more than half a millennia must be regarded as close to an impossibility.  Yet, with luck, and a good measure of help, this  seems to be happening with the (Northern) Bald Ibis.. Described and illustrated by one of the earliest European naturalists, Conrad Gessner in his book Historia Animalium (1555) as the ‘Forest Raven’, many doubted its existence as the Swiss naturalist wasn’t always the most reliable of observers. The species’ existence was eventually confirmed at the start of the 20th Century when a few were found in North Africa and the Middle East. However, until bones of the Bald Ibis were found in Gessner’s native Switzerland, his claim that they had bred there was widely dismissed. None now doubt this was the case nor Gessner’s claim that they were good eating!  The subsequent discovery of fossilised bones also showed that they were once also present in France, Germany, Austria and Spain (plus, in all probability, the Balkans Italy, Hungary and Poland).

Unfortunately, those populations that survived the pot, eventually fell victim to pesticides and human disturbance. The decline in traditional beliefs didn’t help either since the idea that it was the Bald Ibis, not the Raven, that Noah dispatched from the Ark had long protected the last  Turkish colony at Birecik. It’s also not entirely coincidental that the eastern migratory population now seems to be effectively extinct in the wild whilst the more sedentary North African birds manage (just) to hang on.  The Turkish population became extinct in the wild by 1990 and the recently rediscovered Syrian population looks set to follow in the very near future.  This means that the only viable remaining wild population is in Morocco where, with protection, numbers have stabilised and risen slightly to around 100 breeding pairs.

Fortunately, the Bald Ibis has proved to be easy to breed in captivity and there are now about 1,000 birds kept in a number of zoos and collections world wide. One of these is Jerez zoo which has a thriving captive colony. Given projects to reintroduce the species in Austria and elsewhere, it’s not surprising that a study was launched in 2003 to investigate this possibility in Spain. Although the Bald Ibis probably survived longer in the Alps than in Iberia, establishing a population in Spain seems to be a much better long term proposition. The Alpine population must clearly have been long distance  migrants, but plans to induce the recently introduced birds there to migrate to Italy have met with mixed success.  In contrast, there’s every chance that birds settled in southern Spain will follow the example of the Moroccan birds and be a little more sedentary.

It was decided to run an exploratory project (Proyecto Eremita), rather than a full blown reintroduction, by releasing, starting in 2003, 30 birds in the La Janda district of Cadiz province. Part of the logic must have been that with feeding opportunities nearby and Europe’s only cliff nesting egret colony close at hand, this was the ideal place to try.  This exploratory project quickly became the ‘real thing’ when in 2008 a pair laid two eggs in the wild – probably the first such attempt in Spain for well over 500 years. Despite the cliff nesting egrets decamping elsewhere, breeding was attempted again in 20009 and 2010.  Then in 2011 three pairs decided to set up home at a very public location near Vejer de la Frontera (and possibly not co-incidentally, also near a small “egrettery”).    When I visited the site in early May, the birds proved to be very obliging.  One individual surprised me by swooping down to wreck, in search of nesting material, an old thatched shelter I was standing beside!  Evidently, the birds are now quite the local celebrities and it must be hoped that, as at Birecik, this affection will offer the birds some protection.

Away from the breeding colony, birds can be seen along the coast south of Barbate although it’s not always easy (or technically legal) to stop on this road.   They also seem to have developed a liking for golf courses since they can easily be seen on the driving range at the Montemedio Golf & Country Club (off the Tarifa road south of Vejer). IMPORTANT UPDATE: please note that, due to the inconsiderate behaviour of a minority of birders, the golf club now asks birders not to visit the golf course in search of Bald Ibis without seeking permission first. Please respect their wishes.  
​Birds have also ranged over a wide area of southern Iberia with birds being seen on the Algarve (on a golf course!) in Portugal. A number of birds have clearly gone elsewhere (two birds left the area in 2005 and 14 in 2006) and some have been taken by Eagle Owls.  A bird carrying a Spanish ring was seen in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco in 2005, but little is known of their movements.  However, some birds have been released with hi-tec radio telemetry devices so the movements of these birds’ at least are being very carefully tracked.  Perhaps in some quiet corner of Spain or Morrocco a small colony of these spectacular birds is quietly forming.  And spectacular they are too.  OK with their gait, dark plumage and the bald pate fringed by feathery locks, they bear a surprising resemblance to fifties comic Max Wall, but seen close to the burnished plumage and bright eye give it a regal air. Listable? Probably not, but go and see them all the same!