African Wildlife and Environment Issue 68

BIRDING

BIRDING

eagle, Martial Eagle, Bateleur, Dark Chanting Goshawk and the smaller Black Sparrowhawk. Their preferred habitat includes tall grass in open country or woodland, often adjacent to cultivation and close to water. The Swainson’s Spurfowl favours transformed habitats, and during the last three to four decades expanded its range into agricultural areas in KwaZulu Natal, the Free State and parts of Zimbabwe. They avoid the drier parts of Namibia, the Eastern Cape grasslands, the Karoo and Fynbos. Their numbers have increased in agricultural areas, where they exploit crops and associated insects. In these agricultural areas they have become very bold and conspicuous, foraging singly, in pairs or in coveys of up to eight birds, probably a small family group. These spurfowl often dust-bath in the open, in the morning and late afternoon, at weedy margins of agricultural land contour strips, adjacent to a mix of tall grass and trees. When disturbed, they run into cover or fly to the nearest cover or perch in trees. When running they run with their head well down, body sleeked, weaving through grass, and when the spurfowl fly their flight is fast and manoeuvrable. Where water is available they tend to drink morning and afternoon, but their distribution is not determined by water availability. At night they roost in low trees and bushes, and on wet mornings they remain in trees to sunbath. The call of the Swainson’s Spurfowl is a loud deep harsh croaking “kwaaark, kerdowaaark, dowaaark, krrk, krrr “, with pitch and volume decreasing towards end. This call is most frequently given at dawn and dusk. The calling male often perches prominently and conspicuously on a termite mound or tree stump. The diet of this particular spurfowl consists mainly of insects and seeds. During winter they eat mainly bulbs, tubers, roots, seeds, berries and grass leaves. In summer it is supplemented with insects such as locusts, beetles and grasshoppers. Ticks, spiders and small molluscs are also on their menu. In agricultural areas, the Swainson’s Spurfowl regularly eats waste grain, including maize, sorghum, barley and cereals. They also congregate at livestock feed lots. They are known to dig out crop seedlings with their bills. On midsummer nights, they commonly feed in open lands under the full moon. These birds have been somewhat unfairly accused of seedling damage. Although they occasionally eat maize seedlings, the amount taken is less than alleged and they probably dig out seedlings in search of cutworm larva, rather than targeting the seedlings themselves as food. In summer they supplement their protein needs with termites and worms. The Swainson’s Spurfowl breeds in all months of the year, with the peak breeding activity from February to May. These spurfowl are monogamous, and solitary nesters. They become very territorial

when breeding. In courtship the male assumes a crowing stance, twisting his upward, displaying the bright red throat skin, and giving an advertising call to the female. The call is “grr hoeap – grr hoeap”. The female responds in similar posture and answering by, giving a “kwee ke-ke kwe” call. The male then raises his feathers and chases the female. After chasing the female with drooped wings and raised feathers, he mounts the female for copulation. Their nest is a mere scrape in the ground, lined with grass and leaves, usually in thick grass in shrubby vegetation or under a thorny sapling. A clutch could be any number from 3 to 12, with the average clutch being in the region of six eggs. The eggs are pinkish cream or buff, round to oval and pitted with white pores. Incubation of the eggs starts only after clutch completion. The incubation period is 21 days with the female sitting on the eggs. The newly hatched young are downy, with crown and nape rusty brown, blackening laterally, and the hind neck blackish in colour. The back and flanks are rusty brown edged with black, flanked by broad off-white stripes. The sides of the head of these chicks are buffy with a black eye stripe. Almost immediately after hatching the young accompany the parent birds on foraging trips. The chicks flutter-fly at 10 to 14 days, and are able to fly well at around 35 days. Within three months they are almost adult size. Family groups remain together until the onset of the next breeding season. Chicks often fall prey to monitor lizards, mongooses, snakes, Chacma baboon and Southern ground-hornbill. Its closest relative is the red-necked spurfowl, which also has bare red skin on the throat and around the eyes, but is distinguished by its red legs. Hybridisation between these two closely related species occurs regularly in the wild. A new ‘species’ of spurfowl described by the late Austin Roberts in the 1940s (named Cooper’s Spurfowl) was later correctly identified as a hybrid between these two species. The Swainson’s Spurfowl is not threatened; their movements are resident and sedentary. They are very successful, probably due to their high tolerance of man-modified habitats, but repeated hunting as game birds on one property in one season can reduce populations to levels that cannot sustain continued hunting. Strict control should be monitored by conservation authorities.

Willie Froneman Birding Expert & Enthuisiast willie.froneman@gmail.com

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