Little Crake – Porzana parva – at Covelly wetlands, Western Cape, South Africa.

Franklin’s Gull – Larus pipixcan - Strandfontein  

26/3/2012

The Little Crake - Porzana parva – breeds in Europe, mainly Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It winters in north east Africa and parts of West Africa.

Description

Male has blue-grey face and underparts, with narrow white bars on rear flanks and black and white barring on undertail-coverts. Female has blue-grey replaced by buff except for pale ash grey lupercilium, lores and cheeks, and whitish chin and throat. They have a short straight yellow bill, with a red base. The legs are green with long toes, and a short tail which is barred black and white underneath. The chicks are downy black.

Call

Contact calls include soft, rhythmic tapping and a yapping kua call. Alarm call is a sharp "Tyicuk".

Food

Food consists mainly of insects, especially water beetles and also Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and adult and larval Diptera, and also seeds and aquatic plants, worms, gastropods, spiders and water mites.

Breeding

Breeds from May to August. Monogamous and territorial, pair-bond maintained only during breeding season. Nest a shallow, made of plant stems and leaves, placed in thick vegetation near or over water, often raised on tussock or platform of dead material. Between 4 and 9 eggs are laid. The incubation period is between 21 to 23 days.

Conservation Status – Least Concern

This species has a large range, with an estimated global population between 100,000-1,000,000 individuals.

Birdwatching

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Photographed by John Tinkler of Aperture Wild Photographic and Viewing Safaris.

Franklin’s Gull – Larus pipixcan - Strandfontein  

Franklin’s Gull – Larus pipixcan – is a small, black-headed gull of North America. It is common in the interior and migrates in winter to the Caribbean and South America.

Description

The body is white and its back and wings are dark grey. The wings have black tips with an adjacent white band. The bill and legs are red. The entire head is black in the breeding season. Young birds are similar to the adult but have less developed hoods.

Call

Calls nasal and laughing.

Food

Insects, earthworms, fish, mice, garbage, seeds.

Breeding

They breed in colonies, nesting primarily along lakes and marshes in North America. The nest constructed on the ground, or floating on water. They lay 1 to 4 greenish brown eggs which are incubated for about three weeks.

Conservation Status – Least concern

The Franklin's Gull depends on extensive prairie marshes for breeding, and entire colonies may shift sites from year to year depending on water levels. Once threatened by habitat loss due to large-scale drainage projects and the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, this species has regained numbers with the creation of large wetlands, mainly on protected national wildlife refuges. Colony shifts continue to occur, however, influenced by drought and fluctuating water levels. Populations appear to be increasing.

Birdwatching

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