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"The large, matronly-looking bird with a long
curved bill and a raucous call"
Hadedas
are the country cousins of the ibis family.
From a distance their plumage appears to be a dull, olive-browney-grey
colour.
Move closer and the metallic, iridescent greeney-pink-purple feathers on
their shoulders can be
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seen glinting in the sunlight.
It is a larger bird with a heavier
build and shorter legs than the Glossy Ibis. The flight is heavy with broad
rounded wings and the bill points downwards.
In flight the feed do not extend beyond the tail.
They are usually heard calling when flying (hence the myth that they are
scared of heights.. and flying).
They are best known by their call
– ha-ha-ha-ha-hadaha – hence their name.
The call of a single bird is unexpectedly loud and the noise made by a
while flock that has been disturbed and takes to the air, is enough to waken the
dead.
They are however, most often heard
calling to each other as they fly to and from their roosting sites, in the early
morning and evening. They tend to
follow the same route every day and are so punctual one can almost set one’s
watch by them.
Although they congregate together
in large flocks at night, during the day they are seen in smaller parties of
around 10 to 30 birds – in plantations and open bush near streams and rivers
and on open veld. There they forage on moist ground, probing for prey, or taking prey from the soil
surface (in 1 study over 60% of food was taken above the soil surface (Raseroka
1975)). At East London the birds move onto open grassland after rain and
gradually move to forest as the ground dries out; during droughts birds tend to
forage in the dune bush on sands (CJ Vernon, unpubl. data). Food largely
comprise of invertebrates including earthworms and insects, but also a wide
range of other invertebrates and vertebrates, including molluscs and reptiles;
in 1 study at Victoria West, Eastern Cape, insects comprised 96% of the total
numbers and 58% of the mass of prey (Raseroka 1975).
I early summer
(August/September/October), Hadedas pair off for the breeding season.
Their nest is a platform of sticks, padded with grass and sometimes,
lichen. It is usually built on the
branch of a tree overhanging water or in a kloof (ravine). Also recorded nesting
in telephone poles.
The degree of mate fidelity is
unknown, but frequency of sightings of 2 birds together going to roost or
foraging suggests long-lasting pair-bonding. Little is known of the courtship
behaviour, but it apparently begins when birds remain closely together,
including ‘billing’, mutual preening and intertwining necks. In
‘billing’, performed at the nest, when roosting or as greeting, birds grasp
each other’s bill, rattle bills while moving heads side-to-side and
up-and-down and sometimes mutually tap bills, simultaneously raising head and
neck feathers. Sitting bird jibbers bill at approach of incoming partner.
| The three or four rather pretty
eggs, pale olive-green with reddish blotches are incubated for 25 to 28 days
(both sexes). When ready to emerge,
the young chicks may take as long as two days to chip their way through the
shell. The nestling period is
approximately 33 days. After which they are depended on the parents. |
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They
are usully found along the
Southern and
Eastern moist belt as far
as De Hoop near Bredasdorp, in the northern province extending west of the
Limpopo River, the Upper Vaal River, occasional in the eastern Free State.
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