Rare bird back in Brownhills after 85 years
A rare bird has been spotted in the West Midlands for the first time in 85 years.
A glossy ibis, which is a dark-coloured wading bird with a distinctive long down-curved bill, is not usually seen in Britain and was last sighted in the West Midlands in Wolverhampton during 1929.
But the bird was more recently spotted near Engine Lane, Brownhills, earlier this week.
The bird, which breeds in the warm regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Atlantic and Caribbean, was also spotted in Goscote Valley in December.
Kevin Clements, Walsall Council's countryside services manager, said: "It is extremely rare to find a bird of this type in Britain and this is only the second recorded spotting in the West Midlands, the first being in Wolverhampton in 1929."
