Ibises and Spoonbills are carnivorous, primarily tactile hunters, and can feed as well by night as they can by day. Some Ibises will also hunt visually for insects in grasslands. Some species such as Bald, Waldrup and Hadada Ibises are in fact more terrestrial than aquatic though most species are primarily or totally adapted to wetland habitats. The birds use a number of foraging techniques from standing still at the edge of, or in some water waiting to spear a fish, through acts like stirring the water or grass with a foot or flicking the wings, to disturbing or startling prey, to walking rapidly through the environment. Many species have crests of erectile feathers on the head which are raised as part of the courtship display.
Individual species have a repertoire of behaviours associated with courtship.
These are all adapted from defence or preening activities, some examples of this are the Erect Posture display adapted from the Alarm Posture and the Bowing display adapted from an Appeasement display. Nests are built of vegetable matter, sticks, reeds or vines brought by the male to the site. The female does most of the building. A variable number of eggs, normally about five, are laid and incubated by both sexes. The young are fed regurgitated food which they obtain by sticking their heads down into the parent's gullet to eat.