Wetlands are important foraging areas for Japanese crested ibises. Animals consumed include fish (carp, catfish, eels, weatherfish), frogs, newts, river crabs, crayfish, water-scavenger beetles, diving beetles, beetle larvae, crickets, snails, mussels, and earthworms. Stomach contents from Korea have shown rice as well. Supplemental feeding with loach has also improved survival.
Japanese crested ibises feed in shallow flooded muddy regions, not deeper than their leg length (10 to 15 cm). Beaks are probed into the mud while the ibises walk slowly, stopping as they encounter a food item. Once a food item is taken, it is shaken several times in the water before being swallowed. A preference has been noted for feeding along mud walls of rice paddies. If a pair of ibises locates a cluster of prey, the larger individual will dominate the find. Throughout winter, ibises will visit several feeding areas within the same general area.
Animal Foods: amphibians; fish; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods; mollusks; terrestrial worms; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: seeds, grains, and nuts
Primary Diet: carnivore (Piscivore , Insectivore , Eats non-insect arthropods, Molluscivore , Vermivore)
Japanese crested ibises are preyed upon by snakes (especially king ratsnakes (Elaphe carinata), Siberian weasels (Mustela sibirica), yellow-throated martens (Martes flavigula), and large birds of prey such as eagles, kites, goshawks, and kestrels. Crows have been documented destroying nests and preying on eggs.
Known Predators:
Japanese crested ibises are small among ibises, measuring about 56 cm in body length. The wings are long and the tail rounded. The plumage is white tinged with pink, and appears pink when seen from below in flight. The bill is long and curved, colored black with a red tip. The face is featherless and red. The eye is ringed with yellow and has a red iris. The red to brown legs are relatively short with webbed toes. The neck is also relatively short and covered with a mane of narrow feathers which hang to the base of the neck. A large crest sits on the nape. During the breeding season, the head and upper body turn gray, while the rest of the body remains unchanged.
Average mass: 1000 g.
Average length: 75 cm.
Average wingspan: 140 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
The maximum breeding age has been estimated as 16 years. Chicks exhibit about 43% mortality in their first year. Survival increases to 19% at 1 year, then stays steady at about 5% for remaining age classes. Egg hatching success is 80.2%. A captive Japanese crested ibis lived to 26 years old.
Range lifespan
Status: captivity: 26 (high) years.
Wetlands are important foraging areas for Japanese crested ibises. Due to human disturbance, ibises are thought to have moved from highly populated wetland areas to mountainous areas. Mountainous regions in the Japanese crested ibis range do not have many wetlands, so rice paddies are often used for foraging. Habitat preferences change seasonally. During the breeding season, these ibises forage and roost within their territories, but in the post-breeding season they may forage in large flocks up to 20 km from roosting sites. Breeding regions in China are at about 1000 m above sea level, while post-breeding regions are up to 500 m above sea level.
Range elevation: 500 to 1000 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; mountains
Wetlands: marsh ; swamp
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Japanese crested ibises once ranged throughout temperate East Asia (from central China to Hokkaido, Japan and from southeastern Siberia to Taiwan), but are now restricted to several populations in China. Northern populations migrated south in autumn; more southern populations were sedentary.
Biogeographic Regions: palearctic (Native )
Japanese crested ibises are predators of smaller vertebrate and invertebrate animals. They also act as hosts to a variety of parasites.
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Endangered species, like Japanese crested ibises, draw ecotourism interest. Local economies may benefit from having Japanese crested ibises nest near them.
Positive Impacts: ecotourism ; research and education
Japanese crested ibises may trample newly planted rice paddies while foraging, and stomach contents have found rice as well. However, the rarity of these birds make their impact on crops negligible.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
Japanese crested ibises were thought to be extinct in the wild until 1981, when a few wild birds were discovered in the mountains of Yang County, Shaanxi Province, China. Since rediscovery, measures have been taken to protect the remnant population. Nests are observed and predators driven away by volunteers. During food shortages, loach are stocked in local rice paddies. Nestlings too weak to compete with siblings for food are given artificial feedings. Education has also been undertaken on preserving habitat, banning hunting, and forbidding pesticide use. The wild population is now experiencing an upward growth trend. A successful captive breeding program had been ongoing since 1995. Two eggs were laid in Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo in March 2008. According to one population viability analysis, the major parameters affecting the fate of the population are environmental variation and catastrophes. Habitat loss, hunting, and environmental pollution were the dominant factors which brought about the catastrophic decline since the late nineteenth century. Low genetic diversity from this bottleneck may cause a limited ability to tolerate a wide range of environmental extremes and diseases, hindering reintroduction efforts in other regions of former ibis range.
US Migratory Bird Act: no special status
US Federal List: endangered
CITES: appendix i
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: endangered
While feeding, resting, and preening, Japanese crested ibises are silent. Before flight, a low ‘gak’ is emitted while in an upright posture. The call is repeated several times before taking to the air. If flushed, these ibises will emit a rapid series of ‘gak-gak-gak’ calls. This seems to be a high intensity alarm call, while the single ‘gak’ may function as an alarm as well as a contact call. The nest is defended against conspecific rivals by threat displays including wing flapping, head extension, stretch-and-snap, and pursuit flight displays. The crest is used in sexual display.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Japanese crested ibises are known as ‘toki’ in Japan. In Japanese, ‘toki-iro’ (toki-color) is the characteristic pink-ish hue seen as the ibis flies overhead. The scientific name Nipponia nippon comes from the Japanese name for Japan, "Nippon."
Japanese crested ibises are monogamous, remaining in pairs throughout the year.
Courtship behavior begins in January when Japanese crested ibises begin to display. One bird approaches the other with nesting material in its bill while bobbing its head. If the other bird accepts the material, the male will stand on the female's back in a pseudo-copulatory display. This display is repeated if another ibis approaches. If the material is not accepted, the rejected ibis will carry the material for many days, soliciting other ibises for pairing. In actual copulation sequences, the pair will approach each other with crests raised. They then touch beaks and allopreen. The female crouches and shakes her head, while the male mounts and wags his tail.
Mating System: monogamous
Japanese crested ibises breed between March and August, raising one clutch per season. Clutch size varies between 1 and 5 eggs, averaging 3 eggs. They are laid at 1 or 2 day intervals. Eggs are 6.3 to 6.8 cm long, and weigh 65 to 75 g each. Coloration is blue-gray with brown spots. Japanese crested ibises nest in mountainous areas. Both sexes incubate the eggs for 26 to 30 days. They will re-nest if the eggs are lost to predators. Mean hatching success is 80.2%. Egg losses can be due to infertility, predation, and human disturbance. Chicks hatch in mid-May with a bald head, light gray down, and orange-red legs. Offspring grow rapidly, fed on a diet of regurgitated food from both parents. Chick mortality factors include food shortage, predation, and human disturbance. At about one month old, chicks will begin to walk on branches adjacent to the nest. Chicks remain near the nest tree until families gather in flocks for winter in early September. Fledging tends to occur at 45 days of age. Young become mature and capable of reproduction at 3 years.
Breeding interval: Japanese crested ibises breed once annually.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs from March through August.
Range eggs per season: 1 to 5.
Range time to hatching: 26 to 30 days.
Average fledging age: 45 days.
Average time to independence: 5 months.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 3 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Both sexes construct a twig nest measuring about 50 to 70 cm across, lined with moss and leaves. In China, Chinese red pine (Pinus massoniana) and Chinese cork oak (Quercus variabilis) are both preferred nesting trees, although other trees have also been used. Incubation is also conducted by males and females, beginning in mid-April and lasting about 1 month. Chicks then hatch in mid-May. Both sexes exhibit feeding visits and feeding bouts throughout the breeding season. Nests are usually at the same sites year after year.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female)
The crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), also known as the Japanese crested ibis, Asian crested ibis or toki, is a large (up to 78.5 cm (30.9 in) long), white-plumaged ibis of pine forests, native to eastern Asia. Its head is partially bare, showing red skin, and it has a dense crest of white plumes on the nape. It is the only member of the genus Nipponia.
They make their nests at the tops of trees on hills usually overlooking their habitat.
Crested ibises usually eat insects, frogs, small fish, and small animals.
At one time, the crested ibis nested in the Russian Far East, Japan, and Mainland China, and was a non-breeding visitor to the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan. It has now disappeared from most of its former range, and the only natural (non-reintroduced) population occurs in Shaanxi, China.[1]
The last wild crested ibis in Japan died in October 2003, with the remaining wild population found only in Shaanxi Province of China, until the reintroduction of captive bred birds back into Japan in 2008. They were previously thought to be extinct in China as well, until their rediscovery in 1981. Extensive captive breeding programs have been developed by Japan and China to conserve the species. They are on China's State Protection List. In 2002, there were a total of 130 colonies in China. Northwest Shaanxi province's research center has a history of 26 crested ibis fledglings including artificial and natural incubation. On July 31, 2002, five out of seven crested ibis chicks hatched at an incubation center in northwest Shaanxi province. This was the highest ever recorded number of chicks that hatched.[4] The parents of the chicks were chosen from 60 ibis pairs raised at that research center.[5]
In the 1980s, the birds were decimated by overhunting, the use of pesticides, ongoing habitat loss, their already small population size, their limited range, winter starvation and persecution, which together brought the endangered species to the brink of extinction.[6] The crested ibis has been listed in Appendix I of the conservation treaty CITES.
The London Zoo had crested ibises from 1872 until 1873. Outside China, only Japan and South Korea currently keep the species.
On September 25, 2008 in Sado, Niigata, the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Preservation Center released 10 of the birds as part of its crested ibis restoration program, which aimed to introduce 60 ibises into the wild by 2015. It was the first time the bird has returned to the Japanese wild since 1981.[7]
On April 23, 2012, it was confirmed that three crested ibis chicks had hatched on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, the first time chicks had hatched in the wild in Japan in 36 years.[8][9]
On June 23, 2022, nearly five hundred tokis returned to Sado, where the bird's delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak now draw tourists. It's a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast.[10]
On the Korean Peninsula, the bird has not been present since it was last seen in 1979 near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). South Korea made efforts to restore the species after former Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a pair of the birds as a present during a South Korea–China summit in 2008, and President Xi Jinping presented another pair in 2013. The restoration center in Changnyeong has bred more than 360 crested ibises so far. The South Korean government has released dozens of crested ibises into the wild to promote its efforts to preserve biological diversity.[11]
The crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), also known as the Japanese crested ibis, Asian crested ibis or toki, is a large (up to 78.5 cm (30.9 in) long), white-plumaged ibis of pine forests, native to eastern Asia. Its head is partially bare, showing red skin, and it has a dense crest of white plumes on the nape. It is the only member of the genus Nipponia.
