As I’ve stated in early columns, I’m not what you would call a birder, but I still watch for birds whenever I’m out. A few days ago, I took a walk over the old bridge and then came back to Worland via the new bridge.

While crossing the new bridge, I noticed a small flock of strange birds on the island, the one that’s supposed to be the culprit behind this spring’s winter ice jam. I was quite a distance away when I first saw them, maybe a hundred yards, and at first I thought they were crows. But when I got a little closer, I saw that these birds had long black stilt-like legs and they were dark brown leading into black. I still couldn’t see them that clearly, as I had left my binoculars home. These strange birds were nothing like any other bird I’d seen in Wyoming. Of course, I wanted to know more about them. So, I walked back to my house, got my binoculars, and returned to the river. What I saw through the binoculars were obviously wading birds, ones that were working through the shallow water created on the island by high, muddy water in the river. Too, I noticed some really unusual aspects to these creatures. Some of them had rainbow-colored plumage, and all of them had long, curved black bills

“Ibis” was my first thought. Then came the inner, skeptical voice: “ibis? What do you know about ibises? You’ve never seen one in your life.” “Well, maybe not,” I weakly responded to me, “but I have seen pictures.” “Hmmph,” said the skeptic me.

As you might imagine, I was intensely curious to learn what these birds were, and so I hurried back home to my computer. You can Google darn near anything on the computer these days (I’m glad I didn’t make my living selling encyclopedias; the last few years would have been grim). I first looked under “wading birds of Wyoming.” Nothing. Then I looked at other categories in Wyoming. Nothing. I finally looked more broadly at wading birds. Several categories didn’t produce anything. I came across “ibises.” “Hmmph,” came the voice from afar.

“Oh, well,” says I, “I’m about out of options.”

I went through five or six ibises, and found nothing close. But, suddenly, there it was, a photograph of a bird that seemed to fit in every particular the birds I’d seen in the Big Horn River. It is called a glossy ibis, so-named because of its showy iridescent feathers. And its scientific name reflects that scythe-like bill. There were other features described, and everything fit.

The only trouble is that the glossy ibis is primarily a European/African bird that has only recently arrived in North America. My source said the bird is found principally in Florida and that immediate area, although it was stated that the bird is doing well and increasing its range.

I believe that these glossy ibises were migrating through Wyoming, heading north: the next day they were gone when I drove over the highway bridge. But I have no question of the identity of the birds I saw: They exactly fit the descriptions of glossy ibises and, although looking at dozens of shore birds and wading birds, no bird was even close to the look of these distinctive ibises.

So, I think that at least a few of these interesting birds have expanded their range to the western United States. I don’t know if we’ll see them in the Big Horn River near Worland again, though. The last time I saw the island off the highway bridge it was almost drowned from the high water of the Big Horn River, and it looks like it’s going to be removed soon.

John Davis was raised in Worland, graduating from W. H. S. in 1961. John began practicing law here in 1973 and is retired. He is the author of several books. John and his wife, Celia, were married in 1967, have two adult sons, and several grandchildren.