AN INCREASING WHITE-FACED IBIS POPULATION IN OREGON

Abstract

During the 19th century, there were periodic reports of White-faced Ibises (Plegadis chihi) in Oregon. Most of the records were from the Harney Basin in Harney County (Jobanek 1987). In 1908, W. L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman were the first to document the species breeding in Oregon, recording a colony of 500 ibises on Malheur Lake in the Harney Basin (Finley 1908). Extreme drought during the 1930s severely reduced this colony, and no ibises at all nested in some years.