This sedentary species is confined to sub-Saharan wetlands, especially in tropical regions, with a minimum population of about 120,000 birds. It is very sparsely distributed in southern Africa with the only concentration occurring in the Okavango Swamps, and is widely scattered in Zimbabwe. In Namibia, it is most common in the Linyanti Swamps (at a density of about 10 birds per 10 km: M Herremans in Maclean 1997c), the Okavango River (five birds per 10 km), Kwando River (30 birds per 10 km), and the Zambezi River (6.5 birds per 10 km: Jarvis et al. 2001).