Man Captures a Rare Visitor in a Local Birdbath — Realizes That It Was Actually Cleaning the Water

On a sunlit winter morning in January 2019, a bird enthusiast named James (@sydneybirdbath) was walking around the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, Australia, when he noticed a majestic, rare bird perched in a local birdbath. The jumbo-sized bird had stopped by a birdbath mounted near the garden’s gates to sip some water. It wasn’t until James took a closer look that he realized that the bird was unknowingly cleaning the birdbath as it drank the liquid. He unstrapped his camera and captured the bird in a minute-long footage, which he posted on X.

“I filmed this gorgeous Australian White Ibis today in a birdbath in Sydney, having a tough time trying to swallow some leaves! This wonderful creature is actually cleaning the birdbath,” James, a Coffs Harbour resident, wrote in the tweet. The footage shows a beautiful white ibis perched on the birdbath with its feet dipped inside the shallow water pool. As the Government of Australia describes this bird, the giant ibis in the video featured a pearly white plumage with brushstrokes of black on its neck and back.

With its downcurved beak, it slurped the narrow jets of water that spurted out of the water fountain carved in the center of the birdbath. With short nodding movements of its head, the ibis guzzled down the liquid. From time to time, dead leaves swimming in the water got trapped in its beak, which it spat back into the bath pool. Other times, he just swallowed the leaves, thereby cleaning up the water.

As the shadows of surrounding trees fell on its white body, along with the daylight, it cast glimmering silhouettes, which made the ibis look surreal. James said the wetland bird wasn’t intentionally cleaning the bathtub, but as it hydrated itself and swallowed some of the leaves, the water automatically got cleaner with each sip. “It wasn't cleaning the water feature itself, but I noticed it did remove several leaves and bits of grass from the drain cover. I suspect the drain holes would likely get blocked if birds like this didn't take an interest in the objects floating into them,” the bird photographer explained in a comment.

The footage caught the attention of hundreds of people. One person, who goes by the moniker @savingourtrees, expressed sympathy for the bird. “People think Ibis are dirty birds, but in reality, they don't have enough fresh deep water to wash in. If they find deep fresh water, they love it.” @SusaninRaraLand shared that in their family, this bird is called by the name “Yukky bird” after one stole a peanut butter sandwich from a 3-year-old girl.

Many grumbled that there’s no point of the bird cleaning the birdbath because after drinking the water, it would have dirtied it again by pooping. However, James clarified that he didn’t found any poopy droppings in the water afterwards. “Maybe it depends on the length of time that they spend there? I've noticed the currawongs vomit (which is normal for them) into the water sometimes, but usually fly to a branch and face away first. But watched hours of video and never poop in there and never found it there.”

Not the poop, but James found something else. When one user pointed out from the video that the water fountain in the birdbath seemed to be blocked, he revealed in the thread that he “noticed one of the pieces of rubbish floating in there was a thin, long white strip of paper or plastic. I wonder if things like that can feed through the holes and block the pumps?” Thankfully, the ibis only ingested the leaves and not this rubbish. A cleaner birdbath wouldn’t be worthy if it were at the cost of polluting the bird’s belly with trash.

You can follow James (@sydneybirdbath) on X for surreal bird photographs and videos.