Northern Bald Ibis: A Species Returning From Ruin

A bird that outlived its own extinction

The Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is a large, glossy-black ibis with a bare red face and a long down-curved red bill. It looks archaic — and in a sense it is. It once bred across much of North Africa, the Middle East and central Europe, and appears in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as the symbol for 'akh', meaning 'radiant spirit'.

By the twentieth century, it was gone from Europe entirely and clinging on in tiny numbers in Morocco and Syria. In 2018 it was down-listed from Critically Endangered to Endangered, thanks to an unusual combination of Moroccan community protection and European reintroduction.

Where it lives today

The only continuous wild population lives on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in and around Souss-Massa National Park, where three main colonies breed on coastal cliffs. Their population has grown from around 220 birds in the 1990s to more than 700 today.

A separate reintroduced population now migrates each year between Austria/Germany (breeding) and Tuscany, Italy (wintering), reversing a European extinction that lasted more than 400 years.

Diet and breeding

Northern Bald Ibises feed on insects, small reptiles, snails and seeds, foraging in short-grazed pasture, stubble and semi-desert steppe. Nests are built on cliff ledges in loose colonies, and both parents feed the chicks.

Pairs typically raise two to three chicks per year. Adult survival is high when nest cliffs are protected from disturbance and when foraging grounds nearby are managed as low-input pasture rather than intensive agriculture.

The Waldrapp reintroduction: teaching a migration

Because migratory knowledge in ibises is passed from adults to young, a reintroduced flock had no one to teach it. Since 2004, the Waldrappteam project has used human foster parents to raise chicks and then pilots in microlights to lead the young birds across the Alps to their wintering site in Tuscany.

Every year for two decades, this migration has been reinforced with new cohorts. The current population is beginning to migrate independently, an early sign that a lost migratory tradition is being re-established.

What still threatens the species

In Morocco, illegal hunting outside protected areas, disturbance at cliff colonies, and the loss of extensive-grazing landscapes are ongoing concerns. In the reintroduced European population, powerline collisions and illegal shooting on migration through Italy remain the two biggest causes of death.

Climate change is also shifting suitable breeding-season conditions, particularly in Morocco, where a series of drought years has affected chick provisioning.

A slow, hopeful return

The Northern Bald Ibis is one of the few birds whose story is quietly reversing direction. It is not saved — a single disease outbreak in Morocco or a bad winter in Italy could set it back years. But a bird once known only from ancient Egyptian tombs is again crossing the Alps under its own power.