Local lensman captures rare footage of palm nut vulture

An Impala Park resident can be proud of himself after he snapped rare photos of a palm nut vulture feeding on a raffia palm tree in the park on Wednesday, 6 March.

“There is a pair of vultures that frequent the park every morning and afternoon. The birds have been attracted to the raffia palm tree which was planted by a resident many years ago and have been feeding off the palm nuts,” said Chris Butler. “There is also a juvenile which follows the adults.”

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The eagle-eyed lensman snapped the photos at about 5.30pm with a Canon SX60 camera. The sighting of the birds is a rare event, as according to Wikipedia, there are only seven breeding pairs and 40 resident birds currently in South Africa.

The palm nut vulture closely tracks oil or raffia palms, and therefore is most common in coastal forests and mangrove swamps below 1,500 metres, but can also be found in wet savannas.

It feeds mainly on the fleshy fruit husks of the oil-palm and the palm fruits of the raphia, which is unusual for birds of prey, and the fruit make up over 60 per cent of the adult’s diet and over 90 per cent of the juvenile’s. The adult’s diet is also supplemented with freshwater and marine crabs, molluscs, frogs, fish, locusts, small mammals, and even the occasional reptile egg and hatchling.