Africa Wild Bird Book

[Sprocky]

088. Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis (Saalbekooievaar)
Order: Ciconiiformes. Family: Ciconiidae

Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis.jpg (45.68 KiB) Viewed 1429 times

Description
150 cm high. Iridescent black head, neck, back, wings, and tail. White body and primaries. Red bill. Very large. Black band. Yellow frontal shield (the 'saddle'). Black legs and feet. Pink 'knees'.
Sexes similar. The male is larger and heavier than the female. Female has a yellow iris. Male iris is brown, small yellow wattles at base of bill.
Juvenile: Shortly after fledging, head and neck covered with thick, woolly, snuff-coloured down. When fully feathered, upper parts largely grey-brown where ad black; head and neck paler than wings, centre of back blotched brown. Wings dark brown. Bill, incl saddle, black or dark brown, with hint of red at tip; remains this colour for at least 6 month. Bare skin around eyes brown. Legs and feet greenish.

Distribution
It occurs across sub-Saharan Africa, largely excluding the West African coast. In southern Africa, it is uncommon in northern and eastern Botswana, northern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip), Zimbabwe, eastern South Africa and Mozambique.



Habitat
Large river systems, lake margins and wetlands.

Diet
Mainly fish, also frogs, reptiles, small mammals, birds, crustaceans and aquatic insects. It forages in shallow water, standing still and taking animals that come within striking distance, or wades through water stabbing prey.

Breeding
Monogamous, strongly territorial solitary nester. The nest is built by both sexes, consisting of a large platform of sticks and earth, with a central cup lined with grass or reeds. It is typically placed on top of a tall or low tree in a swamp, occasionally using the nest of a raptor. Egg-laying season is almost year-round, peaking from August-March. It lays 2-4 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for about 30-35 days. The chicks are brooded by both parents for up to 10 days, and leave the nest at approximately 70-100 days old. They are fed by both adults, who also regurgitate water for them to drink.

Call
Silent.

Status
Generally uncommon, locally common in northern KwaZulu-Natal, listed as Near-threatened in southern Africa.

[Sprocky]

088. Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis


Female

© Dewi
Kruger National Park, H1-7, Shingwedzi bridge

© steamtrainfan

© Flutterby
Female

© leachy
Male & Female

© Pumbaa
Male

© Toko
Juvenile

© Lisbeth

© Moggiedog

© Pumbaa

© Supernova

Links:
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/088.pdf
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/species_info.p ... #menu_left
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-saddl ... stork.html
Jenkins, A. 2010. Focus on South Africa’s threatened birds: Saddle-billed Stork. Africa - Birds & Birding 15(1):38-39.

[Flutterby]

089. Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumenifer (Maraboe)
Order: Ciconiiformes. Family: Ciconiidae

Description
150 cm. The head and neck is largely without feathers, being naked pink skin with just a few thin black plumes. The mantle and back is bluish-grey; the ruff and under parts are white and the large, bulbous air sac is pink and may be up to 35 cm in size when inflated. A second orange-red air sac is partly hidden beneath the white ruff at base of neck, and only visible when inflated. Eyes are brown, the massive bill is pale horn mottled with black; legs and feet are black. The black legs and feet are often rendered white by a coating of the bird’s excrement. In flight, the black wings contrast with the white body, and the head is tucked into the shoulders.
Sexes and juveniles are alike, but juveniles have dark brown wing feathers and have a smaller bill. First-year birds have sparse, woolly down on the head.

Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa. In southern Africa, it is fairly common to locally abundant in central and southern Mozambique, Zimbabwe, north-eastern South Africa, northern Botswana and central and northern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip).

Habitat
Open semi-arid habitats and wetlands (pans, dams and rivers).

Movements and migrations
Resident and nomadic, following patterns of localised rainfall.

Diet
Different kinds of animals, either alive or as carrion, including small mammals, reptiles, and similar prey. Living prey includes termites, fish, locusts, grasshoppers, caterpillars, frogs, rodents, crocodile eggs and hatchlings, quelea nestlings, doves, young and adult flamingos, cormorant nestlings, and pelican chicks. It behaves in a manner similar to vultures, as it is primarily a scavenger, soaring overhead in search of carcasses. It is also an opportunistic hunter, catching fish by wading through water and stabbing them with its bill, hawking termites aerially, hunting birds and raiding their nests.

Breeding
Monogamous, usually breeding in colonies of 10-30, rarely over 100 breeding pairs. They are rather low reproductive, with only one or two chicks in each nest. They breed at only a few sites. The southern African population is small with about 200 pairs breeding in the Okavango swamps. Smaller colonies are known from Zimbabwe and Swaziland. The population that is breeding in the Hlane Royal National Park in Swaziland is the world’s most southern breeding colony. Hlane's population is small but stable with about 30 pairs. Unlike elsewhere in Africa,the Swazi birds breed well away from water.
Marabous selected nesting sites in relatively low-crowned trees of Acacia tortilis and Acacia nilotica. New nests are usually built each year, although the same nesting tree may be used several times. The nest is built by the female in about 7-10 days with material provided by the male. Nests are about 100cm in diameter and lined with green, broadleafed twigs before 2-3 chalky-white eggs are laid, from May-January, peaking from June-September. Both sexes incubate the eggs, which hatch after about 30 days. The hatched chicks weigh about 100 g. The chicks are brooded for the first 10 days, with both parents feeding and brooding them. They take their first flight at about 95-115 days old, becoming fully independent roughly 130 days later.

Spoor


Call
Mostly silent away from nest. Listen to Bird Call

Status
Locally fairly common resident. Not globally threatened, but Near-threatened in South Africa, due its small population in the country.

[Flutterby]

089. Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumenifer

© Flutterby

© Amoli

© BluTuna

© Flutterby
Juvenile

© harrys
Kruger National Park

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

[Toko]

ORDER PELECANIFORMES
The Pelecaniformes is a (possibly invalid) order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Most have a bare throat patch (gular patch), and the nostrils have evolved into dysfunctional slits, forcing them to breathe through their mouths. They feed on fish, squid or similar marine life. Nesting is colonial, but individual birds are monogamous. The young are altricial, hatching from the egg helpless and naked in most. They lack a brood patch.

The following families are now consider to be part of this group due to recent DNA study. They were all once consider to be closely related to storks.
Ardeidae: herons and their kin
Balaenicipitidae: Shoebill stork
Scopidae: Hammerkop
Threskiornithidae: Spoonbills and their kin

The following families have now been transferred to the order Suliformes, previously termed suborder Sulae (Sulides in older sources):
Fregatidae: frigatebirds. A group of five closely related large birds with black and white plumage, very long wings, and parasitical hunting habits. Red throat patches are inflated in display. They are usuually placed in a monotypic suborder Fregatae, and this seems to be appropriate. If split off in the Phalacrocoraciformes, it may also be simply treated as a basal lineage thereof.
Sulidae: gannets and boobies. Medium to large species which hunt by diving from the air into the sea (plunge diving). Long wings and bills, often coloured feet.
Phalacrocoracidae: cormorants and shags. Medium to large with hooked bills and usually black or similar dark plumage. Plumage is not fully waterproof.
Anhingidae: darters. Another small closely related group of four species, with long bills, snake-like necks and the ability to swim with their body submerged. Plumage is not fully waterproof.

Families indigenous to southern Africa:
Family Threskiornithidae (Ibises, Spoonbills)
Family Ardeidae (Herons, Bitterns)
Family Scopidae (Hamerkop)
Family Balaenicipitidae (Shoebill)
Family Pelecanidae (Pelicans)

[Toko]

The family Threskiornithidae includes 34 species of large wading birds. The family has been traditionally classified into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills: Threskiornithinae for ibises and Plataleinae for spoonbills; because the main distinction has to do with bill shape.
Members of the family have long, broad wings with 11 primary feathers and about 20 secondaries. They are strong fliers and, rather surprisingly, given their size and weight, very capable soarers. The body tends to be elongated, the neck more so, with rather long legs. The bill is also long, decurved in the case of the ibises, straight and distinctively flattened in the spoonbills. They are large birds, but mid-sized by the standards of their order.
All ibises are diurnal; spending the day feeding on a wide range of invertebrates and small vertebrates: ibises by probing in soft earth or mud, spoonbills by swinging the bill from side to side in shallow water. At night, they roost in trees near water. They are gregarious, feeding, roosting, and flying together, often in formation.
Nesting is colonial in ibises, more often in small groups or singly in spoonbills, nearly always in trees overhanging water, but sometimes on islands or small islands in swamps. Generally, the female builds a large structure out of reeds and sticks brought by the male. Typical clutch size is 2 to 5; hatching is asynchronic. Both sexes incubate in shifts, and after hatching feed the young by partial regurgitation. Two or three weeks after hatching, the young no longer need to be brooded continuously and may leave the nest, often forming creches but returning to be fed by the parents.

Species indigenous to southern Africa:

Family Threskiornithidae (Ibises, Spoonbills)
Subfamily Threskiornithinae (Ibises)
Threskiornis aethiopicus Sacred Ibis 091
Geronticus calvus Southern Bald Ibis 092
Bostrychia hagedash Hadeda Ibis 094
Plegadis falcinellus Glossy Ibis 093
Subfamily Plataleinae (Spoonbills)
Platalea alba African Spoonbill 095

[PRWIN]

091. African Sacred Ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus (Skoonsteenveer)
Order: Pelecaniformes. Family: Threskiornithidae

Description
Length 68 cm. All-white body plumage, with a black head and neck and an untidy patch of black feathers on its lower back. Its head and neck are bare of feathers and black. In flight it shows a black trailing edge to its otherwise white flight feathers and has a line of bare red skin under its wings. The long decurved bill, the legs and feet are black. The eyes are brown.
During breeding, the naked skin on the underwings turns scarlet and the flank feathers become yellow.
Sexes are similar, but juveniles have dirty white plumage and mottled head and neck, a smaller bill and some feathering on the neck.

Distribution
Across much of sub-Saharan Africa; in southern Africa, it is common in northern and eastern Botswana, the Caprivi Strip (Namibia), Zimbabwe, Mozambique and much of South Africa.

Habitat
Forage in marshy ground, dams, on shorelines, agricultural lands, rubbish dumps in southern Africa, except dry regions.

Diet
The diet includes fish, frogs, carrion and other aquatic creatures, as well as insects and the eggs of colony nesting birds and crocodiles.

Breeding
Monogamous and colonial, breeding in groups ranging from a few to roughly 1500 pairs, often within a large mixed-species colony. The nest is built by the female with material provided by the male, consisting of a large platform of sticks and branches or reed and sedge stems, lined with leaves, grass and other soft material. Egg-laying season is almost year-round, peaking from August-March. It lays 2-5 dull white eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for roughly 28-29 days. The chicks are cared for by both parents, one of whom are always present at the nest for the first 7-10 days of the chicks' lives. They leave the nest at 14-21 days old to form small groups nearby, fledging at 35-40 days old and leaving the colony at 44-48 days old.

Call
Mostly silent; at nest harsh croaks and squeals.

Status
Common resident; nomadic and perhaps partially migratory in some regions.

[PRWIN]

091. African Sacred Ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus (Skoonsteenveer)



© Dewi

© Dewi
Juvenile



Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

[PRWIN]

092. Southern Bald Ibis Geronticus calvus (Kalkoenibis)
Order: Pelecaniformes. Family: Threskiornithidae

Southern Bald Ibis.jpg (36.02 KiB) Viewed 1383 times

Description
The Southern Bald Ibis is readily identifiable by its bare, bright red crown and white face and throat. Feathering dark green with iridescent green, bronze and violet, appears black at a distance. The neck and facial skin are white and the long decurved bill, crown and legs are all bright red. At close quarters a coppery-colured wing-patch is visible.
Immature birds are matt black, lacking any colour on the head and bill.

Distribution
The species prefers high altitude grasslands and is resident in eastern Free State and Lesotho, through to KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Swaziland. The core range lies in the north-eastern Free State, Mpumalanga and the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, and any sites within this area should provide opportunities for seeing Southern bald ibis (e.g. Wakkerstroom area and Golden Gate NP).

Habitat
Montane grassland in the eastern high rainfall regions and cultivated fields. Breeding and roosting on cliffs.

Diet
It mainly eats insects, foraging in small flocks of usually 5-15, rarely up to 100 birds, probing the ground and snapping up prey.

Breeding
Monogamous, although it rarely copulates with a second mate. It almost invariably breeds in colonies of 2-72 pairs. The nest is built by the female with material provided by the male, consisting of a flimsy platform of branches and sticks, lined with finer material and placed on a ledge or pothole on a cliff. Egg-laying season is from July-January, peaking from August-September when there is plenty of burnt grassland to forage on. It lays 1-3 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for roughly 27-31 days. The chicks are fed by both parents by regurgitation, taking their first flight at about 55 days old and becoming fully independent approximately five days later.

Call
Calls around breeding colony: 2-note whee-ohh.

Status
Uncommon resident, endemic.

[PRWIN]

092. Southern Bald Ibis Geronticus calvus (Kalkoenibis)

© Lisbeth
Harrismith, Free State







Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2