For this reason, parental birds do not offer Uca spp. Rather, chicks are fed primarily on freshwater fish, crayfish and insects. They are tactile feeders that probe around soft bottom areas with their long bills in search of prawns, crayfish and fiddler crabs. Adult birds that are feeding chicks visit freshwater foraging sites more frequently than saltmarsh sites. However, once young have fledged, parental visits to saltmarsh feeding habitats double.
White ibises compete for food with other wading birds.
As such, it quickly colonizes wetlands having good food resources, and readily abandons areas where resources have become scarce. It utilizes both freshwater and estuarine wetlands such as mangrove and cypress swamps, bottomland hardwood, and marshes. White ibises are highly gregarious and readily associate with other species of medium sized herons and egrets. It is not federally listed as threatened or endangered. In contrast with migratory birds that commonly utilize the same habitats from year to year, the white ibis is nomadic, readily abandoning habitats that can no longer support it.