Africa Wild

It's a bit of an enigma as Hamerkops have bills that resemble the Shoebill or Boat-billed Heron, a pectinated middle toe as in the Herons, a free hind toe as in the Flamingoes, egg-white protein like Storks, ectoparasites that are only found in the Plovers and unique behavioural habits.

(Info from The Handbook of Birds of the World. Vol. 1, Lynx Edicions).

Hamerkop

081. Hamerkop Scopus umbretta (Hamerkop)
Order: Pelecaniformes. Family: Scopidae

Description: Length 48-56 cm. Weight up to 535 g. Its plumage is a dull brown. Heavy backward pojecting crest. Brown eye. The black bill is long, flat, and slightly hooked. The neck and legs are short. Black legs and feet. The Hamerkop has partially webbed feet, for unknown reasons. It middle toe is comb-like (pectinated) like a heron's. Its tail is short and its wings are big, wide, and round-tipped; it soars well. When it does so, it stretches its neck forward like a stork or ibis, but when it flaps, it coils its neck back something like a heron. Sexes are alike.

Habitat: It generally favours the shallow margins of lakes, pans, swamps, rivers, marshes, streams, seasonally flooded ponds and even small puddles in gravel roads.

Diet: It eats mainly the adults and tadpoles of platanna frogs (Xenopus), which have a very similar distribution to the Hamerkop, suggesting that it is dependent on them for food. It also eats other frogs, small fish and insects, using a variety of foraging techniques, such as wading through the water and stabbing prey, still-hunting at the water's edge or pouncing on prey from the air. It has also been observed robbing Hadedas of earthworms that they pulled up from a sports field.

Breeding: Monogamous solitary nester. The nest is usually built by both sexes, or rarely a group of up to seven birds, with construction taking anything from 40-43 days to several months. It consists of a uniquely-shaped, large pile of material with an interior chamber and entrance low down on the side. At first, a supporting structure of sticks similar to an inverted pyramid is laid down. The walls are then built by interlocking twigs and finally the whole structure is covered with stalks, sticks, reeds, grass and twigs, while it often decorates it with a variety of both natural and man-made materials, including cardboard, plastic, leaves, bark, aloe stems and stones and wool. It is typically placed in a tree over or next to water, occasionally on a bridge, dam, wall, house or even on the ground. Other animals often usurp the nest of the Hamerkop, such as bees, reptiles and other birds, including Barn owls and Black sparrowhawks. Egg-laying season is almost year-round, peaking from August-September in Zimbabwe and from July-January in South Africa. It lays 3-9 eggs, which are incubated by both adults for about 26-30 days. The chicks leave the nest after 45-50 days and can fly strongly a few days later.

Excellent photos & info all.

Hammerkop fishing.





Collecting nesting material.

Hammerkop..........stork -O -O

Hamerkop

Interesting behaviour - hamerkop scavenging off a kill at crooks' Corner!

Sure that it is not a fish?

Sure! We watched carefully, and it tried to get onto the carcass too!