Death Valley visitor

[Ged]

We saw this in the grounds of Scotty's Castle at the northern end of Death Valley; 14th August 2008.
Curious as to what it was I had a search around the net and the only close match seemed to be the Glossy Ibis which is shown endangered in this part of North America. Just interested.

[MichaelF]

Far more likely White-faced Ibis in that area (in N America, Glossy Ibis is only found on the east coast). Immature White-faced doesn't have the white line round the face, the two are extremely difficult to tell apart outside of adult plumage.

[AndyB]

Hi Ged, agree with Michael. Glossy Ibis is a real rarity in California so on range one would expect this to be a White-faced Ibis. Hard to see too much detail in the photos. Death Valley is a vagrant capital so an out of range Glossy is always possible but I would bet this was White-faced.