Title:

Huge Assemblage of African Openbills in Caprivi, Namibia

Author(s):
Publication Year:
2012
Abstract:

On 29 September 2011 I visited the Impalila conservancy, traveling by boat on the Chobe River from Kasane in Botswana. As we approached the Impalila-Kasane rapids large numbers of storks and other wetland birds came into view. So dramatic was the concentration of birds, mainly African Openbills that, after completing our work on Impalila Island, I hired a boat to get closer to the birds. There were birds perched in the trees and on nests, standing on the banks of the river and circling and thermalling overhead. Large numbers of birds were coming and going, presumably to feeding grounds on the eastern Caprivi floodplains. I spend about two hours counting the birds from Impalila Island, and about one hour from the boat, moving slowly across the rapids to try and cover the whole area. I divided the area into sections and counted and photographed each section. There were sections behind the trees downstream that we could not reach but I would estimate that we covered about 70% of the area. We could not get close to the trees where most of the birds were nesting because of the rocks in the rapids, so the count of Openbill nests is way too low.

Publication Title:

Lanioturdus

Volume:
45
Issue:
3
Pages:
5-6
Item Type:
Journal Article
Language:
en

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