Bird of the Week – African Openbill
The Zulu name is isiqhophamnenke and in Afrikaans it is called oopbekooievaar.
THE African Openbill is an uncommon intra-African migrant which is mainly found in tropical areas, but in South Africa is absent from the south and west.
They like a habitat of larger inland water, marshes, swamps, floodplains, river shallows, pools and lakes.
WATCH:
Openbills feed solitary, but are otherwise gregarious and roost in trees. They forage by wading in quiet waters and among floating plants. They spend much of the day standing still on the shoreline.
The bird feeds on snails and mussels, sometimes collecting 50 to 60, laying them on the shore until they open. They extract the snails from the shell under water, then the shell is shaken free before the body is swallowed.
The voice is a loud, raucous croak or honk ‘horrrh-horrrh’.
LISTEN:
Openbills breed mainly in the summer months in Southern Africa. The nest is a platform of sticks and twigs lined with grass and sedges and built by both male and female in reedbeds or colonially in trees. Three to four dull white eggs are laid, with an incubation period of about 25 days and nestlings remain for about 80 days.
The Zulu name is isiqhophamnenke and in Afrikaans it is called oopbekooievaar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdpy2UAFHBJ/?tagged=africanopenbill
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