Amur Falcons (Eastern Red-Footed) Falcon Falco vespertinus
Birding field trips exploring bush areas in Northern Eastern Botswana adjacent to the Zimbabwe border is a very rewarding experience for those that are interested! In late December early January, I visited an area along the Inchye River, which, incidently is dry for most of the year until the first rains arrive when it springs to life flooding the parched sandy riverbed.
Ichye River, Botswana photo copyright julieannedwards.com 2012
Traversing 25 acres of predominatly riverine habitat I was able to find over 70 species of birds. My field observations undertaken over intervals of two hours at dawn, an hour over mid day and two hours at dusk, for a period of 8 days. I quietly explored neiche habitats to find out what literally turned up! The habitats I studied included, mopane, acacia, combretum and then riverine, with the waterberry’s/ jesse/acacia species etc. According to “Roberts Multimedia Bird of Southern Africa”, this area in the height of summer has over 300 species of bird to be sighted.
An interesting find one morning whilst in the riverine habitat was sighting 6 Amur Falcons perched on a dead tree. Two flew down on to the moist exposed sand in the riverbed to feed on something. “Roberts Birds of Southern Africa” mentions, that they feed mainly on insects. What was exciting to learn about these birds being summer visitors to Southern Africa, is their interesting distribution and migration pattern. According to “Roberts”, they are Paleartic non breeding migrants arriving in Southern Africa between November to March. Amur Falcons ”Breed in Eastern Siberia, Manchuria and China; migrate to Southern Africa via India, East Africa and possibly the Indian Ocean. Recent reports in the www.africanraptors.org site mentions. ” the first satellite tracking data for 7 tracked Amur Falcons”. The research revealed that they have the “longest raptor migrations, flying a distance 2,500 to 3,100km over the sea in spring and do this by flying non-stop for between 2 and 3 days”!
Roberts Multi Media, Scientific Explained: ”amurensis: Latin, from Amurland, the drainage area of the River Amur on the border between China and Russia. falco: Late Latin, a falcon (possibly from falx, a sickle, referring to the curved bill).”
www.avibird.com Conservation Status: “This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 1,000,000-10,000,000 km2. It has a large global population estimated to be 100,000-1,000,000 individuals (Ferguson-Lees et al. 2001). Global population trends have not been quantified, but populations appear to be stable (Ferguson-Lees et al. 2001) so the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.”
Contact me directly should you wish to do a birding field trip, Africa has great birding “Hotspots!”, to add to your life list!
