Colours of Wildlife: Korhaan
Created | Updated Jun 8, 2014
Northern Black Korhaan
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
This bird is one I know well and am very fond of! Its call is characteristic of the open grassland regions here around Polokwane. It is one of two species that are very similar. The Southern Black Korhaan, Afrotis afra, is the rarer, occurring only in the far south of South Africa. This one is the Northern Black Korhaan, Afrotis afroides, which occurs over most of the rest of South Africa, as well as Botswana and Namibia. The species is associated with open, dry country, although it doesn't occur in barren desert. Korhaans are members of the bustard family. They are quite a bit smaller than the huge Kori Bustard. There are several species of Korhaan found in South Africa, and several more found in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Similar species are found in India also.
Raucous Noise Machines
You can see here that this korhaan comes in two colour schemes. The male has a bold black breast, neck and head, with a white collar at the rear and a white cheek patch. He also has a bright pink-red bill and yellow legs and feet. The female is much more humbly marked, mostly greyish brown with fine squiggles on her neck, breast and back, only her belly being black. The female also has a much more skulking demeanour, tending to creep low through tall grass. As such, she is rarely seen.
The male, however, makes himself noticeable, especially in the breeding season, with his displays. Sometimes he stands screaming on a termite hill. Indeed, termite hills of sufficient height form the core of his territory. His call is a very loud and harsh 'krraa-krraa-krraa' sound that can be heard for a great distance. (Interestingly, there is a partridge-like bird called a Swainson's Francolin that occurs in the same region and also stands on termite hills and give calls that sound amazingly similar.) However sometimes even this is not enough. Then he will fly into the air and give his call, now somewhat speeded up, 'krakrakrakrakrakra…' while on the wing! He will fly in a circle over his territory, and then descend with his wings whirring above his head and his legs dangling down. Sometimes more than one male will be displaying in the air at once, and sometimes they will even chase each other in flight!
Male Show-Offs
This showing-off behaviour is something found a lot in the bustard family. Indeed, the korhaans have displays that are somewhat less elaborate than those of the big bustards proper. Those use displays where they inflate and contort their bodies to sometimes-absurd degrees. Korhaans mostly display by puffing out their feathers, a few species having erectable crests on their heads, and by their loud calls. But this display behaviour is similar in purpose between the various bustard and korhaan species. The most flamboyant males attract the most females. Staking out their territories the males will call and fly around and square off against each other. This is a very costly lifestyle though. Almost all the male korhaan's time and energy goes into displaying and defending his territory. This leaves the female with the full duty of caring for her eggs and chicks. A successful male will impregnate several females each season.
Hidden Nests
Actually this species does not make a nest as such … it is just a shallow hollow in the ground scraped out with the feet. The female chooses a spot a kilometre or two/a mile or so away from the male's displaying ground. The scrape is sometimes under a tuft of grass, sometimes under a small tree. The female lays just one or two eggs. These eggs have greenish and brownish blotches and squiggles on them that provide camouflage, and are very hard to spot. For several periods every day the female will leave her eggs while she goes and feeds. In the hot summer when they nest, the eggs will remain warm while she's away. She comes back in between feeding sessions to incubate them. Sitting on her nest, she is very hard to spot as well. She will tend to sit tight if a human or predator approaches.
As soon as the little chicks hatch, they are able to walk along with her, being covered in down, having open eyes and strong legs. She will point food items out to them but does not feed them directly. Korhaans eat almost anything they can find on the ground, such as seeds, insects, juicy plant leaves, stems and flowers. The little korhaans attend her until they're fully grown, and can already fly well when only half-grown.
This species is still common and widespread in South Africa. Together with the very similar Southern Black Korhaan it constitutes the genus Afrotis (meaning 'African Bustard'), which differs from other korhaans by its bold black markings. The southern species can be told from it by having the flight feathers of the wings all-black, while the northern species has white flight feathers at the front of the wing. When the wings are folded, this can't be seen, but the species can be distinguished by their distribution, the only place where they meet being in the Eastern Cape. Here the situation can be confused since the two species actually interbreed! But this happens only in this small region. The genus Afrotis as understood today is confined (endemic) to Southern Africa.
