Korhaan in the Kalahari - help needed (2 Viewers)

[Ralph Timmermann]

Hello all,

can someone maybe help me with this Korhaan? I find it surprisingly diffcult to identify him/her in Newman's Birds of Southern Africa. Red-crested Korhaan (even the female) should have a black underside, Northern Black Korhaan should have a white ring separating the head from the neck. And yet this latter one seems to be closest to what I am looking for.

Picture taken along the Dune Road between the Auob and Nossob Valleys in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

Curious to hear your thoughts, with best regards,
Ralph

 

[Butty]

Barred upperbody + reddish on bill = northern black korhaan.
(There is black on the underbody, and the white-below-head thing seems to be more of a red-crested korhaan thing than a northern black korhaan thing? - and doubtfully present here.)

 

[tconzemi]

No problem here for female Northern Korhaan: heavily barred upperparts, pink base of bill with white subterminal patch, yellow legs. From Roberts second edition:

 

[Muppit17]

The back is heavily marked with white chevrons in the OP. I had always believed this was a feature of Red-crested.

 

[Butty]

The back is heavily marked with white chevrons

Rather feeble ones - and I doubt that you'd describe them as that unless you knew they were 'supposed' to be there; also, there is strong clear barring present, which is not a feature of red-crested korhaan. If you check photos of red-crested korhaan (ignoring misidentified photos of northern black korhaan by using the bill-tip feature described above), you'll see the real chevrons of that species are much more striking (far longer and more contrasting) than in the OP's photo.

 

[Ralph Timmermann]

Hello all,

thank you very much for your help! Glad to see it was not totally totally obvious And also that my closest-to-being-a-choice was not incorrect.

Cheers,
Ralph

 

[Andy Adcock]

The back is heavily marked with white chevrons in the OP. I had always believed this was a feature of Red-crested.

I don't see any chevrons here, I'd say it's fairly densely barred and looks nothing like the chevrons on R-c K

Red-crested Korhaan | Lophotis ruficrista | Species Guide | Birda

Learn about the Red-crested Korhaan (Lophotis ruficrista). Explore species distribution maps and see photos & recent sightings. Download Birda for free.

app.birda.org

 

[njlarsen]

The op image would be welcome in the gallery here, almost all images there show the male
Niels

 

[Andy Hurley]

I agree with Northern Black. The Red crested female has black extending onto lower breast. Also agree with the chevrons comments. They are very obvious on the Red crested.

 

[Andy Hurley]

The op image would be welcome in the gallery here, almost all images there show the male
Niels

I will also check my images for the female, Niels and post them if I have them.

 

[Andy Hurley]

I will also check my images for the female, Niels and post them if I have them.

I added 2 photos of females