AFRIKAANS NAME: Bontelsie
LENGTH: 42 - 45 cm
WEIGHT: 380 g (male), 325 g (female)
Introduction:
Sexes alike. Unmistakeable with pied plumage and long black upturned bill.
Habitat:
Favours saline and inland water bodies, salt marshes, flood plains and sewage works.
Diet:
Mostly crustaceans, insect larvae and small fish.
Video by Lynette Rudman
Behaviour:
Forages both visually and (more often) tactilely. Gregarious foraging and roosting in flocks. Responds aggressively to over-flying raptors.
Breeding:
Built by both sexes and initiated by male. Several may be built before one is selected. It consists of scrape in ground with rim. Lined with twigs, pebbles and feathers.
Call:
Contact call fluty clute, clute…
Migration:
Nomadic, partial migrant related to rainfall and will nearly always be first bird at wetlands formed after rain.
Similar species:
At a distance superficially resembles Crab Plover, but latter larger and uses ploverlike feeding habits, running and stopping. Also bill is completely different.
Distribution:
Found in the southern and western parts of the Eastern Cape.