Why not? Indians weren’t fools and obviously neither are the Ibis.
I don’t even know why they cause it “folklore” as if it is some kind of legend. This behavior by the White Ibis is based on many years of observation by the Indians who observed all kinds of animals very closely.
Anyone remember that scene in “The Horse Soldiers” when the William Holden character who was a doctor treated the leg wound of a soldier with a mixture of grass and mud that he said the Plains Indians used to good effect? Then later the soldier tossed it away because he claimed it itched him and the wound got infected and he died.
White flight? Even the hurricanes are prejudiced.