Northern Bald Ibis pair nests on motorbike shop window in Switzerland

A pair of reintroduced Northern Bald Ibises is nesting on a windowsill of a motorbrike dealership in Switzerland, marking the first breeding effort in the country for 400 years.

The birds, which originate from a reintroduction project in Überlingen, southern Germany, have constructed a nest at the unlikely setting of a Harley-Davidson shop close to Zurich Airport. Birder Martin Meier shared the images on Twitter, showing one of the ibis sat on the nest in an industrial area.

The pair of Northern Bald Ibis is nesting on the windowsill of a motorbike dealership near Zurich (Martin Meier).

Northern Bald Ibis was native to central Europe until it was extirpated in the 17th century. However, an ambitious EU-funded reintroduction scheme, Waldrappteam, was launched in the mid 2000s. A partnership of eight conservation organisations spanning Austria, Germany and Italy are involved, and have been captive-breeding ibises. The first breeding colony was established in Bavaria in the early 2010s, with three more having been created in Germany and Austria since.

The species was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2018