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Hadada ibis

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Hadada ibis
In breeding plumage (Lake Naivasha, Kenya, possibly subspecies nilotica)
Calls recorded near Kitale, Kenya
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Pelecaniformes
Family:
Threskiornithidae
Genus:
Bostrychia
Species:
B. hagedash
Binomial name
Bostrychia hagedash
(Latham, 1790)

The hadada or hadeda ibis (Bostrychia hagedash), is an ibis found in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named for its loud three to four note calls uttered in flight especially in the mornings and evenings when they fly out or return to their roost trees. Although not as dependent on water as some ibises, they are found near wetlands and often live in close proximity to humans, foraging in cultivated land and gardens. A medium sized ibis with stout legs and a typical down-curved bill, the wing coverts are iridescent with a green or purple sheen. They are non-migratory but are known to make nomadic movements in response to rain particularly during droughts. Their ranges in southern Africa have increased with an increase in tree cover and irrigation in human-altered habitats.

Taxonomy and systematics

The hadeda ibis was originally described by English ornithologist John Latham as Tantalus hagedash based on a specimen that he collected near "Outeniqualand" east of Mossel Bay.[2] It was later placed in a monotypic genus as Hagedashia hagedash but has since been placed in the genus Bostrychia. Three subspecies are recognized, the nominate form is found south of the Zambezi river and is paler and shorter billed. Populations to the north of the Zambesi river and towards the eastern parts of Africa including Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia are larger and longer billed and designated as B. h. nilotica (Neumann, 1909) while to the west from Senegal to Congo and Kenya the darker brown and more brightly glossed populations are designated as B. h. brevirostris (Reichenow, 1907).[3] A range of intermediate plumages are known and other subspecies such as erlangeri and guineensis have been proposed in the past.[4]

Description

The nominate subspecies has a greyer head and neck.

The hadada is a large (about 76 cm long), grey-to-partly brown species of ibis. Males and females are alike in plumage. It has a narrow, white, roughly horizontal stripe across its cheeks. This is sometimes called the "moustache" though it does not reach the mouth corners. The plumage over the wings has an iridescent purple sheen produced by optical microstructures within the feathers.[5] The bird has blackish legs and a large grey-to-black bill but during the breeding season it has a red culmen on the basal half of the upper mandible. The upper surfaces of the toes are of a similar red during the onset of breeding.[3] The wings are powerful and broad, enabling quick take-offs and easy manoeuvring through dense tree cover.

It has an extremely loud and distinctive "haa-haa-haa-de-dah" call—hence the onomatopoetic name. The call is often heard when the birds are flying or are startled, or when the birds communicate socially, for example early in the morning in residential suburbs. While roosting they produce a single loud "haaaa". When foraging, their contact call is a low growl similar to that made by a young puppy.

Distribution and habitat and

Nominate subspecies in breeding plumage (Johannesburg)

The hadeda ibis is found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa in open grasslands, savanna and wetlands, as well as urban parks, school fields, green corridors and large gardens. This bird occurs in Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Somalia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The distribution range of the hadeda has increased in southern Africa by nearly two and a half times in the 20th century following the introduction of trees in parts that were treeless. Irrigation projects may have also helped in their expansion as they appear to need moist and soft soils[6] in which to probe for food.[7][8][9][10]

Ecology

Searching for food at the beach in South Africa

Hadada ibises roost in groups on trees. They fly out in the mornings with loud calls and return in the evenings with regularity. They feeds on insects, millipedes and earthworms, using their long scimitar-like bill to probe soft soil. It also eats larger insects, such as the Parktown prawn, as well as spiders and small lizards. These birds also favour snails and will feed in garden beds around residential homes. They are particularly welcomed on bowling and golf greens because they are assiduous in extracting larvae of moths and beetles that feed on the roots of the grass.

Flying in South Africa

Hadada have become very common in many African cities and tolerate the closeness of humans.[11] They are able to judge the direction of gaze of humans and the speed of approach to decide their escape strategies.[12] Hadada ibises have been involved in several bird-hits at airports in Kenya and South Africa.[13][14]

Hadada are monogamous and pair bonds are thought to be maintained even outside the breeding season.[3] Pairs begin breeding just after the rains. In the Cape province, they breed mainly from October to November. The nest is a platform of twigs placed in a tree. Both parents take part in incubating the clutch of three to four eggs for about 26 days after which the young are fed by the parents by regurgitating food. Many young birds die by falling off the nest. The ones that survive fledge in about 33 days.[15]

In culture

The calls of hadeda ibises are considered as a sign of rains in Lesotho.[16] The Xhosa people use the name ing'ang'ane or ingagane which means black ibis as opposed to the white sacred ibis. The name in many African languages is onomatopoeic. It is known as Zililili in Chichewa, Chinawa in Chiyao, Chihaha or Mwanawawa in Tumbuka, and Mwalala in Khonde.[17] Colonial hunters considered it as good bird for eating.[18] The Bantu people of Uganda have an origin story where a man and wife starved themselves during a drought while letting their children eat whatever little they had. The man and his wife were then turned into ibises that go by the name of Mpabaana.[19] In Zululand the name ingqangqamathumba indicates that anyone who mocks the bird will break out in abscesses. When they fly continually, they are said to foretell a rich harvest in that year. A saying utahthisele amathole eng'ang'ane which means "he has taken the hadada's nestlings" is an idiom used to indicate that someone has offended a vindictive man and that he would have to be careful.[20]

Conservation status

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the hadeda ibis is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

References

  1. ^ Template:IUCN
  2. ^ Dean, W.R.J. (2005). "The type locality of the Hadeda ibis Bostrychia hagedash (Latham". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 125 (1): 42–44.
  3. ^ a b c Hancock, James; Kushlan, J.A.; Kahl, M.P. (2010). Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World. A&C Black. pp. 193–195.
  4. ^ Neumann, Oscar (1909). "Die geographischen Formen des Hagedasch-Ibis". Ornis; internationale Zeitschrift für die gesammte Ornithologie (in German). 13: 190–196.
  5. ^ Brink, D J; Berg, N G van der (2004-02-11). "Structural colours from the feathers of the birdBostrychia hagedash". Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 37 (5): 813–818. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/37/5/025. ISSN 0022-3727.
  6. ^ Duckworth, Gregory D; Altwegg, Res; Guo, Danni (2010). "Biodiversity research: Soil moisture limits foraging: A possible mechanism for the range dynamics of the hadeda ibis in southern Africa". Diversity and Distributions. 16 (5): 765–772. doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00683.x.
  7. ^ Macdonald, I.A.W.; Richardson, D.M.; Powrie, F.J. (1986). "Range expansion of the hadeda ibis Bostrychia hagedash in southern Africa". South African Journal of Zoology. 21 (4): 331–342. doi:10.1080/02541858.1986.11448008.
  8. ^ Duckworth, Gregory Duncan; Altwegg, Res; Harebottle, Douglas Michael (2011-10-05). "Demography and population ecology of the Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) at its expanding range edge in South Africa". Journal of Ornithology. 153 (2): 421–430. doi:10.1007/s10336-011-0758-2. ISSN 2193-7192.
  9. ^ Ainsley, J.; Underhill, L.G.; López Gómez, M.; Brooks, M. (2016). "Bird distribution dynamics 8 – Hadeda Ibis Bostrychia hagedash in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland". Biodiversity Observations. 8 (6): 1–10.
  10. ^ Duckworth, G.D.; Altwegg, R. (2014). "Environmental drivers of an urban Hadeda Ibis population". Ardea. 102 (1): 21–29. doi:10.5253/078.102.0104.
  11. ^ Singh, Preshnee; Downs, Colleen T. (2016-02-06). "Hadedas in the hood: Hadeda Ibis activity in suburban neighbourhoods of Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". Urban Ecosystems. 19 (3): 1283–1293. doi:10.1007/s11252-016-0540-6. ISSN 1083-8155.
  12. ^ Bateman, P. W; Fleming, P. A (2011). "Who are you looking at? Hadeda ibises use direction of gaze, head orientation and approach speed in their risk assessment of a potential predator". Journal of Zoology. 285 (4): 316–323. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011.00846.x.
  13. ^ Owino, A.; Biwott, N.; Amutete, G. (2004). "Bird strike incidents involving Kenya Airways flights at three Kenyan airports, 1991-2001". African Journal of Ecology. 42 (2): 122–128. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.2004.00507.x. ISSN 0141-6707.
  14. ^ Viljoen, Ignatius M.; Bouwman, Hindrik (2016-01-05). "Conflicting traffic: characterization of the hazards of birds flying across an airport runway". African Journal of Ecology. 54 (3): 308–316. doi:10.1111/aje.12267. ISSN 0141-6707.
  15. ^ Skead, C. J. (1951). "A study of the Hadedah Ibis Hagedashia h. hagadash". Ibis. 93 (3): 360–382. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1951.tb05440.x. ISSN 0019-1019.
  16. ^ Mokuku, T.; Mokuku, C. (2004). "The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Biodiversity Conservation in the Lesotho Highlands: Exploring indigenous epistemology". Southern African Journal of Environmental Education. 21: 37–49.
  17. ^ Wilson, John (2011). "Vernacular Names of Malawi's Birds". The Society of Malawi Journal. 64 (2): 36–51.
  18. ^ Horsbrugh, Boyd (1912). The Game-birds & Water-fowl of South Africa. London: Witherby & Co. pp. 152–153.
  19. ^ "Stereo" (1910). "Fishing on Lake Victoria, with notes on the Hagedash Ibis" (PDF). Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Societ. 1: 44–49.
  20. ^ Godfrey, Robert (1941). Bird-lore of the Eastern Cape Province. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. pp. 19–20.
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