The Lappet-faced Vulture is the no-nonsense foreman of Africa’s vulturine clean-up crew.
And what a well-staffed squad it is. Of the Old World’s 16 species of vultures, nine breed in sub-Saharan Africa. These fall into two distinct taxonomic groups. The first, comprising the Lappet-faced, White-headed, Hooded and three species of Gyps vultures, clusters close to the snake eagles. The second, encompassing the Palm-nut, Bearded and Egyptian vultures, is rooted in the very earliest origins of the birds of prey, alongside lineages such as those of the cuckoo hawks and honey buzzards.
The closest Afrotropical relative of the Lappet-faced Vulture is the more petite White-headed Vulture. The two share broadly overlapping distributions in the woodlands of the continent, although the White-headed avoids the most arid areas favoured by the Lappet-faced and extends further into more mesic and well-wooded habitats.
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Esta historia es de la edición March - April 2017 de African Birdlife.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
