Month: July 2013

Bird of the Week

Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum)

Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum)Photo@Tony Crocetta

Grey Crowned Crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species. Both sexes dance, and immature birds join the adults. Dancing is an integral part of courtship, but also may be done at any time of the year.Its body plumage is mainly grey. The wings are also predominantly white, but contain feathers with a range of colours. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. The have long legs for wading through the grasses. The feet are large, yet slender, adapted for balance rather than defense or grasping. The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger. Young birds are greyer than adults, with a feathered buff face.

In Kenya they are widespread in all wetlands and grassland field. They however, prefer breeding in Saiwa sawmp National Park in western Kenya and other high altitude wetland in Kenya.

Bird of the Week

Hammerkop (Scopus umbretta)

The Hammerkop (Scopus umbretta), about the size of a small egret, is entirely brown, with a robust crest which gives its head a hammer-like appearance. This pronounced head crest makes it unmistakable. The bill is long, laterally compressed, blade-like and tipped with a sharp hook. Its legs are strong and endowed with narrowly webbed toes.

This bird is related to the storks but is different enough to be placed in a separate family (Family Scopidae) of which it is the only member species.Perhaps what the hammerkop is knowned for is massive nest built mostly on a tall V-shaped branched acacia tree.Hammerkops feed mostly on frogs,fish and tadpoles, and they also take small crustaceans, grasshoppers, and aquatic insects. They often rest during the day and become active at twilight, when they are most often encountered, often alone. They range throughout Kenya.

Bird watching

November 2013 and January 2014 Scheduled Birding Trip to North and Western Kenya Birding Trip

This 17 days trip will take you to Nairobi, Mt. Kenya region,Samburu, Lake Nakuru, Lake Baringo, Kakamega, Lake Victoria, Masai Mara and Lake Naivasha. Some of the highlight species expected on the this include;Turner’s Eremomela, Abbot’s Starling, and Sharpes’s Longclaw, Rufous-bellied Heron,Allen’s Gallinule, Hartlaub’s Bustard, White-crested, Great Blue and Black-billed Turaco, White-faced Scops Owl, Gambaga Flycatcher and Boran Cisticola