hi !! i'm Chilean and i love birds !! (again)
look at these buff-necked ibises digging for worms! i wonder what makes some of them so pale and others so toasty? couid it be sexual dimorphism, age, season or diet?? or something else??
another pale one!
this one was young and learning how to dig for worms. mud all over the face. also toasty feathers!
the buff-necked ibis is a very pretty bird imo. they also laugh! their sounds are like laughter. the babies kinda sound like a grinder though. they like to stand on YOUR ROOF and you can feel their heavy footsteps on there and hear their grinder babies. very fun birds
Hmmm! They are SO cute, I appreciate the photos. I’ve been dwelling on what could have caused the color range - it’s possible that some of these are the similar Black-faced Ibis, but frankly, my knowledge of Chilean birds is limited. From what I gleaned from frantically Googling “buff-necked ibis color variations -ai” is that juveniles and adults differ in color, but I didn’t find an explanation for the very pale birds. Perhaps it is dietary, or another cause you mentioned? I’d be interested to see if any followers have insights!
According to BOW:
It is polytypic, with a northern paler subspecies and a southern subspecies that together with the Black-faced Ibis of the Andes form a superspecies.
and
Very similar to T. melanopis, but has part of wing white; buffish of breast does not extend so far down neck, and is not crossed by grey band. Immature has head and neck narrowly streaked brown. Race hyperorius has paler neck and less white on wing.
So they are both highly variable across age class and have two subspecies which look different.


















