Aenigmatolimnas marginalis – this long and nearly impossible to pronounce phrase is the scientific name of the Striped Crake. It is one of the most difficult birds to find and observe and one of the most nomadic of the tropical migrants. Birders utter its name in hushed tones, such is its reputation for eluding them.
Despite this crake’s wide distribution throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the combination of its skulking habits, small size and preference for dense, wetland habitat make detecting it all the more difficult. Little is known about where it resides when it’s not breeding, although scattered records from East, central and West Africa (from Tanzania to Uganda to Ghana) point to this wider area being its wintering zone. However, little other information is available.
Striped Crakes can only readily be seen during their breeding period (roughly from December to April). They follow the tropical storms in the austral summer southwards and rapidly move into suitable seasonally flooded pans and depressions from Zambia to South Africa, where they breed. Apart from in a few places in southern Zambia, northern Namibia and Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland Plateau, where this species is present almost every season, it is otherwise highly nomadic and sites vary each year, depending on the rainfall and conditions in the area. Despite these ‘known sites’, few birders can attest to having had good sightings of the bird.
Denne historien er fra May/June 2021-utgaven av African Birdlife.
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Denne historien er fra May/June 2021-utgaven av African Birdlife.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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.
