From Opus

Photo by pjbphotos
Location: Amboseli National Park, Kenya, February 2007

Amaurornis flavirostra

[edit] Identification

• 19–23 cm
• Plumage mainly black
• Brown/olive tinge on the wings and upperparts
• Red eye
• Yellow bill
• Feet & legs red (duller when not breeding)
  

Sexes similar, though male is larger
Immatures

• Brown upperparts
• Dark grey head and underparts
• Greeny- yellow bill
• Dull red feet and legs.

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland

[edit] Taxonomy

A monotypic species^[1].

[edit] Habitat

Fresh water marshes with a thick cover of reeds and other aquatic vegetation.

[edit] Behaviour

This species will perch on hippopotamuses and warthogs and remove parasites.

[edit] Breeding

Both sexes build the deep neat bowl nest from wetland plants, placed in marsh vegetation or on the ground in a dry location. Two to six cream or white eggs, spotted with brown or chestnut, are laid. They are sometimes assisted by the young from previous broods, incubation 13–19 days.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes invertebrates, small fish, frogs and seeds; it will take the eggs of birds and scavenge on carcasses. It will forage on the ground or climb reeds to find prey including flying insects.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Avibase
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links