The sound of the hadada is something that I always associate with Africa.
One always knows if a movie has been shot in South Africa when you hear the hadada’s iconic calls in the background. Yet it is that very call that has so many people disliking them. You will know what I mean if you have ever tried to have an afternoon nap while one or more of them are singing you the song of their people outside your bedroom window.
The hadada ibis is a common and widespread bird throughout much of sub-saharan Africa, found in grasslands, savanna and wetlands as well as in urban parks and gardens. They do not migrate, however, they may move around according to the rainfall. In the 20th century the distribution and population of these birds has increased quite dramatically in South Africa thanks to human developments such as agriculture, irrigation and the planting of trees.
The hadada ibis usually occurs in family groups ranging from two to more than a dozen individuals, usually returning to the same roost tree every evening and flying off in the mornings to forage for food. They have quite a varied diet of prey that they feed on worms and millipedes dug out of soft soil, to grasshoppers, snails and even small lizards. The hadada, as well as other ibis species, have sensory pits at the end of their bills that allows them to detect exactly what they are probing under the soil.
They are monogamous birds, a pair stays together throughout the breeding season. Even though they come together in large family groups, they nest individually. The nest is made of a large platform of sticks put together in a strong fork of a tree. Three to four eggs are laid, which both parents take turns incubating and after 26 days the eggs hatch. Both parents partake in raising the chicks, which fledge after 33 days. Due to their often haphazard nest building there is a high mortality rate where many babies fall from the nest.
If you would like to contact Warren to have some of your interesting insects, snakes or other wildlife identified, send him a WhatsApp message or call him on 072-211-0353. Visit his Facebook page, Warren’s Small World.
