The kori bustard (Ardeotis kori) is a spectacular and powerful bird running around almost in secret, with record-breaking qualities and a very stylish mating performance. The kori bustard is a ground-dwelling species from the bustard family and is the largest flying bird native to southern Africa. This bird species is a member of the bustard family, and like all bustards, is a ground-dwelling bird.
Let's explore some interesting facts about this magnificent creature.
Basic Information
Here is a quick overview of the Kori Bustard:
- Habitat: Open grassy areas, scrubland, and bush
- Location: Southern and Eastern Africa
- Lifespan: 28 years in captivity
- Size: 105 - 135 cm (3.5 - 4.5 ft) in height, 230 - 275 cm (7.7 - 9 ft) wingspan
- Weight: Up to 18 kg (40 lb), possibly more
- Color: Grey and brown patterned
- Diet: Insects, lizards, snakes, seeds, gum from acacia trees
- Predators: Lions, leopards, caracals, jackals, hyenas, eagles
Kori bustards are the biggest of the 26 species of bustards that range from 40 cm up to 135 cm in height. These are prehistoric-looking birds with powerful legs that can kick and stomp.
Taxonomy and Nomenclature
Kori bustards belong to the class Aves (birds). The common name of this bird species is kori bustard. It is called “Christmas turkey” in Namibia and “Kalahari Kentucky” in South Africa. The scientific name is Ardeotis kori, and in the genus Ardeotis there are four species. Its family is Otididae (bustards). Its English name of kori comes from its African name in the Setswana language, which is kgori.
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There are two subspecies of A. kori, A. k. kori and A. k. struthiunculus.
Physical Characteristics
The main colors of the kori are brown with grey with fine black and white patterns. Its upper body and neck are greyish tan and black, followed by a black collar that goes down the sides. Its side feathers are sandy brown, black, and white. It has a black crest on the top of its head that the male has more coloring of than the female. Above each eye is a white stripe. The neck, throat, and chin are white with fine, thin black barring. The neck feathers are loose and give the appearance of a thicker neck. The belly is white, while the tail is white and brownish-grey.
The male has a weight of 15.4-39.7lbs, a length of 3 ft 5 in-4 ft 5 in, a height of 23.6-47.2in (average 4.5ft), and a wingspan of 7 ft 7 in-9 ft 0 in. The female measures about 20-30% less in height and weight than the male. She has a weight of 6.6-15.4lbs with an average weight of 10.6-13.4lbs, a height of 2.25ft, a length of 2 ft 11 in-3 ft 8 in, and a wingspan of 5 ft 10 in-7 ft 3 in. She has thinner legs and a slimmer neck. Juvenile birds are similar in appearance to females but with more brown as well as mantle spots, plus a shorter crest and neck feathers.
Both of these bird species are African. However, while the secretary bird is greater in height, the kori bustard is heavier, larger, and with a longer wingspan. It also has a longer, more complex digestive tract for an omnivorous diet, whereas the secretary bird eats more flesh. The secretary bird is black and white in color but like kori bustards prefers its habitat to be open grasslands.
Distribution and Habitat
The kori bustard has a geographic range throughout southern Africa, but it is native to both eastern and southern areas. It is most common in Botswana and Namibia and locally common in Zimbabwe. You can find it in open grassy areas with sandy soil, and sometimes in other areas except for dense woods. When it’s in dry grasslands, it seeks shelter from the heat under groups of trees along dry watercourses. The kori bustard’s breeding habitat is in open savanna with light grass, trees, and shrubs, or sometimes hilly areas.
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Kori Bustards inhabit wide, open grasslands, and lightly wooded savanna. The subspecies kori can be found in arid savanna areas where trees are usually scattered. Kori Bustards are very fond of areas with short grass and a nice scenery. These birds are not known to migrate as much as other birds, only when needed during scarcity of food or weather.
This bird species is always in open areas and stays away from wooded ones so it has enough space to take off running when threatened.
Behavior
They are ground dwellers, hence the name bustard, meaning birds that walk. They fly only when necessary because of their weight. It is even appearing that the Kori Bustards may become categorized as the few large flightless birds like ostriches and emus, which means they may be returning to an ancient ancestral form, since they, and the other cranes, are descendants of large flightless predators. They have a long life span and breed slowly. They are seen alone, in pairs or groups in woodland, grassy plains and Kalahari scrub. Kori bustard walks slowly with measured strides and flies reluctantly. The birds have a majestic walk and for their size are remarkably strong fliers. They take off with very heavy wing beats, but once air-borne they fly quickly and strongly. They prefer to walk away from danger and only fly if pressed. When in a group, the birds walk in a loose line across the veld searching for food.
Males are aggressive during mating season. When landing from flying, the bird keeps its wings spread until it has reached walking speed. Like other bustards, it avoids flying and when the female is incubating eggs, she’ll only fly at the last minute.
It looks for food during the day and does not migrate. Although the kori bustard does not migrate, unlike many other African birds. It is sometimes nomadic, irregularly moving at night to new habitat areas according to rainfall.
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Kori Bustard Mating Call | Discover Africa Latest Sightings
Diet
Kori bustards are opportunistic omnivores, meaning their diet has both animal and plant matter according to opportunity. They follow foraging ungulates to feed after them. Sometimes, they feed in wheat fields and other agricultural areas. The kori bustard diet is omnivorous. It eats locusts, grasshoppers, katydids, dung beetles, caterpillars, termites, scorpions, lizards, chameleons, spiders, flies, bees, wasps, ants, mollusks, small snakes, rodents, bird eggs, nestlings, and even carrion. It also eats grasses, seeds, and sometimes other vegetation, including green leaves, wild melons, flowers, bulbs, roots, and berries.
They inhabit open grassy areas and are opportunistic omnivores that forage for food with their bills, snapping up insects such as locusts, grasshoppers, caterpillas, beetles and termites. They occasionally eat carrion, and small lizards or snakes, as well as grasses, plants, seeds and Acacia gum to compliment their diet.
Another important habit of Kori Bustards is that they drink using a sucking motion, unlike other birds that scoop up the water with their bills.
Reproduction
Like other bustard species, the female does not make a true nest. Instead, she lays her eggs on the ground in a shallow area 12-18 in diameter. The nest is usually 13ft away from a shrub, tree, termite mound, or pile of rocks, and is hard to find unless someone accidentally stumbles upon it.
The birds mate by sexual reproduction and breed from September to February (A.k. kori) or mid-March or December to August (A.k. struthiunculus) depending on the subspecies. Their breeding is very much connected to rainfall, as breeding is rare or doesn’t happen at all during drought.
Males engage in mating behavior called lekking in which they come together to do courtship rituals for females. They do so at regular lekking sites during the mornings and evenings. They are polygynous, so one male will attract and mate with several females.
During courtship displays, the males hold their heads back and bulge out their cheeks, inflate their throat pouches, hold their bills open, puff out their front neck feathers and stick up their crests. They raise their tails up and lower their wings. Then they stride and emit loud booming calls.
Some male bustards even act further and ruffle all their feathers, appearing as a great white ball. They may also bow toward the female while inflating the bill. Males tend to pitch a booming sound too. By this time the male is noticed by the female. Breeding males display this act either early in the day, or late afternoon.
Females lay about 2 eggs, which are 2.3-2.4 in width, 3.2-3.4in in height, and 4.3-6.3 oz in weight with an average weight of 5.3oz. They incubate them for 23-24 days, rarely drinking and never eating, and dropping bits of vegetation onto their backs for camouflage. They bring softened food to their chicks.
Males do not have any part in raising the young. Females lay about 2 eggs. The chicks at first weigh 2.8-4.1 oz but quickly grow, and they’re able to follow their mothers a few hours after hatching. They can forage with their mothers after a few weeks. Fledging at 4-5 weeks, they get to flying independently at 3-4 months.
Females remain on the nest most of the time, leaving it for only short intervals, to feed. Reproduction usually only occurs once a year lasting about 23-30 days. When the female is laying her eggs, it is common for a mother not to create a thick nest; she may even lay them on ground.
Threats and Conservation Status
This bustard species is threatened by hunting, poisoning, brush encroachment from livestock, and agricultural development. The kori bustard has many predators. Leopards, caracals, cheetahs, lions, hyenas, jackals, python snakes, eagles, and eagle owls eat juveniles and adults.
The baby kori bustard is called a chick, while the young is called a juvenile. Its lifespan is 26-28 years in captivity.
The kori bustard is listed as a near-threatened species and not threatened because its geographic range is large and its population decline is slow. It is important to the people’s cultural symbolism and in their diet, particularly the San people’s songs and dances and its meat reserved for royalty.
Collisions with powerlines in South Africa are so common that they’re contributing to population declines in bustards in these areas. They’re the second-most affected after Ludwig’s Bustard, according to mortality surveys, with an estimated loss of up to 1,260 a year in just one region assessed.
In other countries, they’re killed deliberately. They’re hunted for bush meat and illegally kept as pets. In Botswana, this unregulated hunting is a significant threat, and there are suggestions that the bird is sometimes used in traditional medicine too. These threats have led to the shrinking of the bird’s range by 20% in East Africa and 10% in Southern Africa in the last 50 years.
The Smithsonian's National Zoo’s research with kori bustards has focused on behavior and reproduction with the goal of advancing the understanding of kori bustard biology and making recommendations to improve its survival, both in the wild and in human care. The distribution of this kori subspecies is becoming fragmented and is declining in numbers due to a slow reproduction rate, hunting, and habitat destruction from agriculture and development.
Interesting Facts
Here are some more interesting facts about the Kori Bustard:
- Despite being relatively quiet by bustard standards, they have a wide range of calls and are capable of expressing themselves.
- They can also fly, though you might not know it from looking at them.
- They try not to fly too much.
- They amble around most of the time at a leisurely pace of around 1 kmph.
- It’s best not to upset them, as they are weighty dinosaurs with incredible kicks.
- When it’s time to take off, they will do as the paragliders do, and run into the wind.
- This balloon display is accompanied by a fantastic erection (as any good strut should be) of both the crest on the bird’s head and its tail.
- The grey neck feathers puff out to four times their width, displaying the white colouration at their base and framing the bird’s handsome little face as he walks around proudly.
- He struts around showing off this billowing frill and booming out a deep and guttural sound from within it. This sound is hard to hear on recordings because it’s such a low frequency, but it’s loud enough to carry for up to 1km.
- They have been seen fighting with secretary birds, presumably for the title of most dinosaur.
- Their Afrikanns common name is ‘Gompou’, which translates to ‘gum peacock’, in reference to their taste for Acacia gum.
- The kori bustard will often follow blue wildebeest herds and snack on small animals and insects that are disturbed by them!
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