Africa Wild

547. Cape Crow (formerly known as Black Crow) Corvus capensis (Swartkraai)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Corvidae



Description
The Cape Crow has a height of 50 cm and weighs around 500g. Only all-black crow in region. It is completely black with a slight gloss of purple in the feathers. The slender pointed bill is black. It has black legs. The eyes are black. Sexes alike.
Juvenile is browner than adult, lacking the glossy, blue-black plumage of adult.
Similar species: Larger than the House Crow, and differs in being uniformely glossy black (without grey or greyish brown nape, mantle and breast) with a long slender, slightly decurved bill.

Distribution
It has two separate populations - one in East Africa and the other from Angola to southern Africa. Here it is common in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, largely absent from Mozambique.

Habitat
It generally favours open habitats with scattered trees, such as open savanna woodland and grassland, but it is also common in semi arid shrubland, alien plantations and farmlands.

Diet
Omnivorous, feeding on a wide range of animals and plants. It mainly forages on the ground, searching the bases of plants and responding to any temporary abundance of food, such as termite alate emergences.

Breeding
Monogamous. The female does most of the nest construction, while the male collect the materials. It consists of a large cup of sticks and twigs, thickly lined with soft material such as feathers, fur, sheep's wool, dry dung, string and cloth. It is usually placed in the sleder branches of a tall shrub, especially Rhigozum obovatum (Granaatbos) in the Karoo, but also in Acacia and Eucalyptus trees, utility poles and rarely cliff edges. It lays 1-6, usually 3 eggs, which are incubate by both sexes for about 18-19 days. The chicks are cared for by both parents, leaving the nest at about 26-39 days old and becoming independent roughly 6 months later.
One of main hosts of Great-spotted Cuckoo; up to 10% of nests parasitised.

Call
Loud harsh kraa, kraa, and a mixed repertoire of deep liquid notes and various gurgling sounds. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Resident and fairly common throughout most of region. Usually in permanently territorial pairs. Sometimes solitary and occasionally in large groups of up to 50 birds during non-breeding season. Roosts communally in trees (sometimes hundreds of birds), also on top of telephone poles.

547. Cape Crow Corvus capensis (Swartkraai)



© Mel

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

548. Pied Crow Corvus albus (Witborskraai)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Corvidae


Description
The Pied Crow has a height of 46-52 cm and weighs around 550 g. The glossy black head and neck are interrupted by a large area of white feathering from the shoulders down to the lower breast. The tail, bill and wings are black too. The eyes are dark brown. The white plumage of immature birds is often mixed with black, there is less contrast in black-and-white plumage.
In southern Africa the range overlaps with the White-necked Raven. The Pied Crow is slightly smaller and has a white chest and belly with a black, more delicate beak compared to the black chest and belly of the larger White-necked Raven which also has a white tipped and weightier beak.

Distribution
It occurs across sub-Saharan Africa, absent only from areas of Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as much of eastern Botswana, the Northern Cape and western Namibia. It has become prolific, as its numbers and range are expanding especially in the Karoo.

Habitat
It often occupies savanna woodland and bushy shrubland, but it is becoming more and more common in farmland, urban and suburban areas.

Diet
It is omnivorous, feeding mainly on plant material such as fruit and seeds, doing most of its foraging on the ground. It also regularly eats animals, such as reptiles, fish, insects, small mammals and birds. In one observation, it caught and ripped apart a small bird in mid flight. It also takes eggs and even whole nests from breeding pairs of smaller birds. Reptiles are mainly taken from the ground (especially when crossing roads) and it may even attack fruit bats at their roosting site.

Breeding
The Pied Crows are monogamous, and pair-bonds probably last all their life. Both sexes construct the nest, which is a large bowl made of twigs, sometimes including bits of wire and lined with fur, dry dung, rags or sheep wool. It is usually placed in the vertical fork of a tall tree, such as a pine, Eucalyptus, cypress or palm. It also commonly places it on the top of a telegraph pole, especially in more open areas, such as the Karoo. It lays 1-7, usually 4 eggs, which are mainly incubated by the female for about 18-19 days.
The Pied Crow’s nests can be occasionally parasitized by the Great Spotted Cuckoo.

Call
Loud harsh kraah and a snoring khrrr. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common to abundant resident.

548. Pied Crow Corvus albus (Witborskraai)

© Toko
Sossusvlei, Namibia

© Dewi

© Amoli
Rietvlei Nature Reserve, Gauteng

Links:
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/548.pdf
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-pied-crow.html

550. White-necked Raven Corvus albicollis (Withalskraai)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Corvidae


Description
A large (50 to 56 cm) raven with a short tail and broad-based wings. Its plumage is mainly black with a black-brown throat, blackish-brown breast and the neck with a slight purple gloss. Unmistakable is the patch of white feathers on the back of the lower neck. The heavy bill is arched sports a white tip. The sexes are similar.
Juveniles have an all black bill and are duller than in adults.

Distribution
Southern and eastern Africa in a band from Kenya and Tanzania through Malawi to southern Africa. In Soth Africa particularly in the Western and Eastern Capes, KwaZulu-Natal and the Limpopo Province.

Habitat
It generally favours rocky or mountainous areas, often hunting in adjacent plains and even in the more open areas of cities. Mostly recorded between 1000 and 3000 m, locally higher.

Diet
Much of day thermalling high, often with vultures. Usually foraging alone or in pairs. The diet includes carrion from road kills, fruit, grain, insects, small reptiles, peanuts and human food. It also picks up tortoises in its bill and drops them about 15 m onto rocks, which (sometimes after several tries) cracks open the shell so that it can eat the meat inside. Robs bird nests (even of large birds) and kills newborn lambs that are sick.

Breeding
Monogamous with long-term pair-bond. The nest is a large cup of twigs lined with with hair, grass and wool. They are mainly on a cliff ledge but will occasionally nest in a tree. 3-5 eggs are laid which are incubated for about 21-26 days. Egg-laying season is from about July-November, peaking around September-October. In one observation, the chicks were fed and cared for solely by the female, leaving the nest after 38 days. Monogamous bird with longterm pair-bond. A place bound species but large flocks wander around in non-breeding season.

Call
A high-pitched kraak kraak kraak. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Locally common resident and in some parts of distribution regarded as a pest because of its sheep-killing habits.

550. White-necked Raven Corvus albicollis

© Mel

© Sharifa

Links:
Sabap2
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

Family Chaetopidae (Rockjumpers)

The rockjumpers are medium-sized insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Chaetops, which constitutes the entire family Chaetopidae. The two species, the Cape rockjumper, Chaetops frenatus, and the Drakensberg rockjumper, Chaetops aurantius, are endemic residents of southern Africa. The Cape rockjumper is a resident of the West Cape and south-west East Cape, and the orange-breasted (or Drakensberg) rockjumper is distributed in the Lesotho Highlands and areas surrounding them in South Africa. The two rockjumpers have been treated as separate species but differ in size and plumage. The ranges do not overlap, but come close to doing so.

Originally, these birds were placed in the thrushes, and they have also been placed with the Old World warblers and the babblers, but recent DNA studies indicate these birds are actually members of a basal group within the infraorder Passerida along with the rockfowl (Picatharthidae), a family in which they are sometimes placed.

These are small birds with mostly black, white, and red plumage. Both species have long, white tipped black tails, black throats, broad white submoustachial lines and eyebrows, rufous or orange bellies and rumps, and grey and black patterned backs and wings. Females have similar pattern to males, but duller. The iris is red and the bills and legs are black. Their wings are very small and they do not fly very often. They spend most of their lives running and jumping among rocks and grasses while hunting insects.

The rockjumpers feed in groups, foraging on the ground. Insects are the major part of the diet, although small vertebrates are reported to be taken by Cape rockjumpers.

They are monogamous and pairs establish territories which are defended year round. Both species employ helpers, usually the young of previous broods, to aid the breeding pair in raising the young. Nests are built out of grass on the ground.

Family Chaetopidae (Rockjumpers)
Chaetops frenatus Cape Rockjumper 611
Chaetops aurantius Drakensberg Rockjumper 612

611. Cape Rockjumper Chaetops frenatus
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Chaetopidae



Description
23-25 cm; 54-60 g. Striking ground-dwelling passerine, streaked grey and black above.
The male has a dark rufous belly and rump, a black throat, and a white moustache; the female is duller, with a streaked chest.

Similar species: The similar Drakensberg Rockjumper differs from the Cape Rockjumper by having pale orange-buff underparts and preferring montane grasslands.

Distribution
Western Cape and SW Eastern Cape, in South Africa.

Habitat
Rocky mountain slopes and crags in fynbos habitat.

Diet
The rockjumpers feed in groups, foraging on the ground. The groups can number up to 6 birds. Insects are the major part of the diet, although small vertebrates are reported to be taken by Cape rockjumpers.

Breeding
They are monogamous and pairs establish territories which are defended year round. The adults employ helpers, usually the young of previous broods, to aid the breeding pair in raising the young. Nests are built out of grass on the ground. The clutch size is two eggs. Both sexes incubate the clutch for 19–21 days. Chicks fledge at 19–21 days, although they are fed by the parents and helpers for up to 2 weeks following fledge.

Status
It’s listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

611. Cape Rockjumper Chaetops frenatus

Rooi Els © Dindingwe

Links:
http://sabap2.birdmap.africa/docs/sabap1/611.pdf