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Seeing a Yellow-billed Stork (Latin name – Mycteria Ibis) is an unusual experience. They are not small birds, which makes for an interesting sighting. The Yellow-billed Stork is a large wading bird in the stork family – Ciconiidae, but although one may expect them to be ungainly, they have extremely quick reflexes.

Identification assistance 

One of the first indicators to be aware of when trying to identify a bird is its relative size, ie. how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Yellow-billed Stork is a big bird – much larger than a Pied Crow. The height of the Yellow-billed Stork is about 97 cms, and its weight is about 2 kgs. 

The male and female are the same when it comes to plumage and colours:

• Head is red
• Eyes are yellow
• Bill is yellow
• Throat is white
• Back is white
• Legs are pink.

The Yellow-billed Stork is a stealthy bird, moving slowly and quietly on its long legs.

Storks will generally travel in flocks. During the breeding season, the storks make a hissing sound and adults may make a hollow banging sound with their bills. The babies will beg for food with a braying sound. 

Diet

The Yellow-billed Stork feeds on the ground and in or around water mainly. Their diet consists of mostly:

• Reptiles
• Invertebrates
• Seeds
• Aquatic life forms.

When hunting, they stand on one leg and use the other leg to muddy up the water and get the prey to move from their hiding places. Once the prey is moving, the stork is able to dunk its head into the water and catch the prey with its lightning-quick reflexes.

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird

The preferred habitats for Yellow-billed Storks are wetlands and riverine areas.

Lifecycle

They breed when food is abundant. The breeding cycle often takes place toward the end of rainy season, or in a dry season, depending on food availability, or when fish and frogs are more easily caught in shallow pools.

When mating, the female stork approaches the male. The male stork selects the nesting spot and together the male and female build a nest of sticks and debris. Most often the nests are built in a tree, away from predators. It can take the pair several days to build the nest. The Yellow-billed Stork is monogamous unless its mate dies. In the event of a partner dying, the stork will seek out a new mate

Once the female has laid her eggs (normally 2-3 eggs), the incubation period is about 30 days long. The eggs are laid on alternate days, so they also hatch accordingly. The babies remain in the nest for up to 55 days when the fledging period begins. The stork comes of breeding age at around 3 years old. The lifespan of a stork is about 19 years in captivity.

Unusual Facts about this stork

• They have one of the fastest swallowing reflexes known, enabling them to catch moving prey in water very quickly.
• They can snap their beaks shut in just 0.025 seconds.
• Storks will nest in groups in trees, sometimes with other species.
• Storks regurgitate water over their babies to keep them cool, and to encourage water intake.
• Storks are smart birds, they stand on one leg, and stir the water and mud with the other, disturbing their prey, and then catching it quickly as it moves.

If you want to see one of these large, feathered friends and find out why they are so popular, you can enquire or book with us at www.tanzaniabirding.com.

Source: The Kruger, Desert USA.

The joy of birding is best shared, and so, this week, the bird we are following is the Augur Buzzard.

The Augur Buzzard is a fairly common bird that is nomadic in response to the supply of available prey.

Distribution

They are commonly found on rocky outcrops in the mountainous country as well as in woodlands and arid scrub.

The population is found intermittently from Ethiopia and East Sudan through Eastern and Central Africa to Zimbabwe. There is some isolated population in South West Angola and Namibia. In Southern Africa, the species is confined to Central and North Western Namibia, Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique. There are vagrants at Tsodilo Hills, North Western Botswana.

They are resident, with some juvenile dispersal; and occasional nomadism linked to prey availability.

The general habits of the Augur Buzzard can be described as living solitary or in pairs. They have a longevity of about 9 years. They spend most of the day perched (58%), with the remaining time split between soaring (29%) or hovering (13%). Towards midday, the buzzard rests perched in shaded areas in the trees or will soar much higher than at other times. The Augur Buzzard is known as territorial but will range most widely in the non-breeding season.

Voice

The call of the bird can be described as a harsh kow-kow-kow, sometimes led by a whistling note made mainly in display, but also in greeting, or when soliciting food, or alarmed. The young bird calls with a penetrating pi-pi-pi-pee-ooo-ooo, or cheeu-cheeu, occasionally interspersed with tuk, tuk notes.

Adult Male Pale Morph

The adult male can be described as having a blackish slate crown, face and upper parts, along with whitish streaks, especially on frons, supraorbital ridge, mantle and scapulars. 

It’s upper tail coverts and the tail are rich rufous or chestnut. Upper wing coverts are blackish slate, with streaked white. The flight feathers whitish, with fine black bars and broad blackish tips. 

The underwing coverts are a white, with greater primary coverts mostly presenting with blackish tips forming a dark comma. Undersides of the flight feathers are mainly white, with broad blackish trailing edge and fine dark grey barring on secondaries and inner primaries. 

The underparts are white, with throat and sides of breast sometimes presenting with dark streaks; along with undertail coverts rufous. Some males retain a narrow, dusky grey-brown juvenile subterminal undertail band. Its bill is black, cere yellow, and eyes are dark brown. The legs and feet are yellow.

Adult Female Pale Morph

The female is much like the male, but the throat and breast usually have more extensive blackish streaking, often forming a distinct bib.

Immature

By one year, the underparts are mainly creamy white, with blackish spots on flanks, thighs and underwing coverts. The immature bird moults into adult plumage over the 1.5 year period after this, with mosaic of adult and juvenile plumage visible during this time.

Juvenile

The juvenile’s upper parts are dark brown, head and neck feathers edged by buff, with whitish bases showing as streaks. The upper tail is brown and upper wing coverts are dark brown. 

Flight feathers present as grey-brown (with darker brown bars), forming a slightly paler panel visible in flight and at rest. Underwing coverts are buffy, with dark carpal patches and dark tips to flight feathers that are more diffused than adults. 

The underparts are buff with irregular brown blotches on the throat, flanks and thighs. Undertail shows as a greyish brown, with narrow dark brown bars and broader subterminal band with the tail being distinctly longer than the adult.

Food

The Augur buzzard likes to hunt from a perch with a downward swoop to catch its prey. It will also hunt from the air in a rapid parachute drop with its feet extended in front of it to catch mostly reptiles. It feeds on insects, nestlings, rodents and reptiles, and will sometimes chase prey on the ground.

Alternative Names

German = Augurbussard
French = Buse augure
Portuguese = Bútio-augur
Dutch = Augurbuizerd

All our Tanzania Tours guarantee an Augur Buzzard! 

If you want to see one of these beautiful feathered friends and find out why they are so popular, you can enquire or book with us at www.tanzaniabirding.com.

Source: Roberts Multimedia Birds guide

Following hot on the heels of our Facebook bird of the week post, we present our bird of the week as the Red-billed Firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala).

The Red-billed Firefinch or Senegal Firefinch is a small gregarious passerine bird. There are two types in East Africa, which are: 

1. Lagonosticta senegala ruberrima Reichenow, which occur in most of Eastern Africa, and the 
2. Lagonosticta senegala rendalli which occur in most of Southern Tanzania and down into Southern Africa.

Distribution

The Red-billed Firefinch has a wide distribution, and are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, from south Mauritania to Sudan and Somalia, south through east and central Africa to South Africa; absent from Congo Basin and arid areas in east Africa. 

Populations that have been introduced have spread in:

• Central Algeria.
• South Africa, in northern Namibia. 
• North and East Botswana.
• Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and Swaziland. 

In South Africa: 

• widespread in NW and Limpopo Provinces, 
• Gauteng, 
• Mpumalanga,
• Northern KwaZulu-Natal,
• more locally in Western Free State, 
• Northern Cape and interior of Eastern Cape, with small numbers extending through Little Karoo to Western Cape, with several recent records west to Robertson, in Breede River valley.
• In KwaZulu-Natal, formerly mainly north of Tugela River, but now along the coast as far south as Ramsgate.

They are residents of grassy habitats and thickets with a preference for Acacia Savanna. The Red-billed Firefinch have an extremely large geographic range, with a fairly stable population. They have one breeding partner and their nest is placed near the ground and forms a ball shape. Usually found in pairs or small flocks with other birds where they are seen feeding on seeds and grains on the ground and are considered sedentary, with some localised movements. 

Voice

The Firefinch has a call of a soft fluty “dwee” or “fweet” notes which is a simple melodious phrase of 2-6 soft fluty whistles, rising slightly in pitch towards the end, preceded by sharp tzet alarm note. The local dialects and individual songs will vary slightly. 

The contact call is a soft, thin dwee, uee, peee or fweet, slurred and usually rising, sometimes repeated as a double note; which is restrained by the close proximity of the same species. The Firefinch alarm call is a sharp, low-pitched tzet, tzet, tzet, sometimes rapidly repeated. The young of the species beg with wis and we call.

Adult Male Firefinch

The sexes are dimorphic in feather colouration. (L. s. rendalli). The adult male will be brown along the centre of crown and nape, mantle and back, sometimes suffused with pale red. The remainder of his head will reflect a dull pinkish-red. The rump and base of the upper tail are a pinkish red. 

• The tail is blackish-brown, with reddish outer margins. 
• Wing coverts are brown, sometimes suffused pale red. 
• Flight feathers dark brown, narrowly edged pinkish-brown with the underparts mostly dull pinkish-red, sides of breast faintly spotted white. 
• The lower belly and the undertail coverts deep buff. 
• Bill red, with dark horn culmen ridge; palate black, the rim of palate yellow. 
• Eyes red to red-brown, eye-ring white or bright yellow. 
• Legs and feet pinkish brown.

Adult Female Firefinch

The upperparts are brown with a reddish rump, as well as the upper tail coverts and fringes of rectrices. The face, underparts buff and lores are a dull rose red. The white spotting on the breast is more extensive on the female than in the male.

Juvenile Firefinch

The juvenile is similar to the female but lacks reddish lores and white spotting on breast. Its bill is black; with recently fledged birds, base is pink and a petite white gape tubercle. The eyes dark brown and the eye-ring grey.

All our Tanzania Tours guarantee a Red-billed Firefinch! 

If you want to see one of these beautiful feathered friends and find out why they are so popular, you can enquire or book with us at www.tanzaniabirding.com.

Source: Roberts Multimedia Birds guide