Crested ibis

Species of bird

The crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), also known as the Japanese crested ibis, Asian crested ibis or toki, is a large (up to 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. 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.

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.