People have a lot of fun with collective nouns for birds. I would prefer to say that this is a picture of a skein (skayn) of ibis. I suspect I would be howled down on two counts:
- When used as a collective noun the word skein seems most commonly applied to geese or ducks in flight.
- I suspect that the correct plural of ibis is ibises.
So this is a probably a picture of a flock of ibises. When they land they would become a colony.
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| Photographed from the car at 100kmh (yeeees .....passenger seat!) on the South Gippsland Hwy at Bass last Saturday evening. About 250 Straw-necked ibis(es) heading south west (in the direction of Phillip lsland I imagine). There may be a few white ibis thrown in. |
But I still think skein of ibis sounds better!
it can become a little 'political' I guess, deriving the correct terminology. I love your photograph though, the varying hues int he sky; a beautiful capture Pete
ReplyDeleteI had to look up 'skein' in the dictionary and found this alternate definition: "A flock of wild geese or swans in flight, typically in a V-shaped formation". Since ibises usually fly in a V shape, I guess it's not too far an extrapolation to apply it to the ibis.
ReplyDeleteI often see them flying over Westernport between the island and mornington peninsula, no idea where they are going or having come from.