Breeding Herons and Storks in Botswana

Abstract

Ostrich ISSN: 0030-6525 (Print) 1727-947X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tost20 INTRODUCTION Observations detailed in this paper were made in the vicinity of Txatxanika camp on the Khwae River, Moremi Wildlife Reserve, Botswana. On a small island of about three acres in extent, approximately 60 nests of Purple Heron Ardeapurpurea, six nests of Wood Stork Zbis ibis, and eight nests of Marabou Leptopfilos crumeniferus were found. The island was densely covered in Ficus verrucolosa trees. The nests of the two storks were in the upper stratum of the trees while those of the heron were situated in the middle stratum from 1.5 to 4.5 m above the ground which was in parts flooded. The vegetation consisting solely of F. verrucolosa was very thick and the middle Stratum consisted of entangled and intertwining branches of the trees.

Biology of the Little Bittern in the Southwestern Cape

“…Other birds frequenting bittern nesting sites, that prey on eggs or young of reed-nesting birds are Black Crake (Fraser 1971), Moorhen (Siegfried 1972) and Blackcrowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax (Blaker 1969;Siegfried 1972). The only mammalian predator suspected of taking eggs or young, was the Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus, which inhabits abandoned Masked Weaver and Red Bishop Euplectes orix nests in the vicinity of bittern nests.…”

A Survey of Mixed “Heronries” in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

“…With the exception of a nest reported in a ''collapsed water willow tree" from the Que Que District of Rhodesia, all previous records were of nests built in reeds or reed-like plants and not in woody vegetation like the gomoti thickets. Fraser (1971) The observed clutch size for Rufous-bellied Herons, of just under two in 25 nests, was lower than the 3,1 from seven nests in the Naboomspruit and Waterberg Districts of South Africa or the 2,6 from 14 nests from the Kafue region of Zambia. This may be related to sampling errors inherent in estimating clutch size from single visits to nests, the first recorded clutch size being used for calculations where observers reported more than one visit to a nest.…”

“…Records of Yellow-billed Stork breeding in the Okavango by Cooper (1969), Fraser (1971) and the writer extend the species' known breeding range considerably as the only other reports from the southern African region appear to be (a) from St. Lucia estuary on the Natal coast, where two occupied nests were observed in June 1964; and (b) from Ndumu, Natal where a fair-sized colony was active from 1961from to 1963from (Pooley 1967. There is one Nest Record Card indicating an occupied nest in October 1953 from the Mweru marsh in Zambia and Benson et al (1971) indicate egg laying in 13 other nests-from that territory commenced in February through September.…”