Pink or Scarlet?

When Sean Kelly saw this pink ibis on Isles of Capri, he said, “She’s wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Actually, ibis may show pink for either of two reasons other than breast cancer awareness.

One: About fifty years ago, several scarlet ibis, natives of South America, were released in south Florida and interbred with their close cousins, the white ibis, producing a bird that shows pink as an adult. This bird could be a hybrid white-scarlet ibis.

Two: scarlet ibis begin life as gray-brown birds and slowly turn through pink to red as a result of crustaceans in their diet. This bird could be a young scarlet ibis, one of the very few in South Florida. If so, he/she hasn’t grown scarlet yet.

This bird appears to be young, as indicated by the neck and head gray-brown coloring that is common to the young of both white and scarlet ibis.