Kori bustard
Spread the word about the collection of feathers from illegally-hunted kori bustards to those in the fishing community. Share the Kori Bustard Feather Project as a source that doesn’t harm birds in the wild.
Conservation Messaging Opportunities
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Physical features
Kori bustards have grayish necks, tan backs, and cream bellies. They also have a small black feather tuft on their crown. Their eyes are a yellowish brown. Legs, feet, and bill are a pale gray. Individuals may show some difference in the band markings on their plumage.
There are two subspecies of kori bustards: the East African (A. k. struthiunculus) and southern (Ardeotis kori kori).
This is one of the largest bustard species, and males in breeding season are among the heaviest birds capable of flight. Males weigh 22-33 pounds with an increase in weight during breeding season up to 33-42 pounds. Height is around 5 feet with a wingspan of 8 feet. They are sexually dimorphic, with females being smaller and weighing around 12-15 pounds and having a wingspan of around 6 feet.
Usually in the wild they are seen as solitary birds or females with chicks but they are also seen infrequently in small groups of a few birds.
Most bird species have a preen gland that helps to waterproof and condition feathers. Since kori bustards lack this preen gland, they will dust bathe and sun themselves in addition to preening and using their beak to straighten feathers to keep them in optimal condition.
Kori bustards are primarily terrestrial and have three forward-facing toes that are better-suited for walking and running. Birds that spend time in trees are adapted to perching and gripping branches so typically have a backwards-facing toe that koris lack.
Long legs and necks help to give kori bustards the height needed to forage in the tall grass and watch out for predators.
Excellent eyesight and a pointed beak make kori bustards experts at finding and catching prey in the savanna grass.
Range and Habitat
Range – Africa (East African: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania) (South African: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe); they have a discontinous distribution
Habitat – open grassland, lightly wooded savanna
They are tolerant to traditional-scale human agricultural activities such as subsistence wheat-farming and do not threaten crops in any serious manner.
Diet: Omnivore
Wild – grasshoppers, dung beetles, lizards, snakes, rodents, carrion, flowers, seeds, roots, acacia gum
Zoo – mice, meat, crane pellets, insects
Kori bustards will consume grit and small pebbles to aid in digestion.
Lifespan
Wild – Unknown, estimated 15-20 years
Zoo – Up to 30 years
Reproduction
In the wild, the Eastern subspecies breeds December to August, while the southern subspecies breeds September to February.
Males will gather in an area and competitively display for females, and females will choose their mate. This is called a lek breeding system, and lekking behavior has been observed in many species, including other birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and some mammals.
A courting male walks slowly around a female, inflating his neck up to four times its usual size, bowing, sometimes emitting a low-pitched booming vocalization that sounds like a drum, and snapping his bill. After copulation, the male will resume courtship with other females, and does not take part in egg incubation or parental care of chicks.
Kori bustards are polygynous, meaning that males will mate with multiple females.
During breeding season, males will fight with one another.
A kori bustard nest is just a scrape on the ground, into which the female lays one or two eggs that are a pale olive color with brown splotches.
The incubation period is 23 or 24 days. Chicks are precocial and will follow their mother within hours of hatching. They can fledge at around five weeks (really?) though will stay with their mother for many months.
Mothers feed chicks insects as their primary food source.
In the wild, they would separate at the beginning of the following year’s breeding season. Males tend to disperse more widely (up to 75 miles) than females (2-3 miles) from where they were born.
Conservation: Near Threatened
What’s the issue?
Kori bustards are experiencing a population decline due to collisions with power lines, hunting for bushmeat and traditional medicines, habitat loss, and habitat degradation. Collision with power lines is a significant threat to kori bustards when they do take flight. Research shows that while many birds navigate around power lines with ease, others, including bustards, storks and cranes, have blind spots preventing them from being able to see power lines. They fly with their heads angled slightly downwards so they can look below them, but making them unable to see the powerlines in front of them. Although there are areas that are protected for kori bustards, they are still hunted illegally for bushmeat and feathers. “Bushmeat” refers not only to hunting for the subsistence of local human populations, which does also occur, but also to illegal and unsustainable commercial trade. Kori bustard feathers are prized by fly fishing communities for use as lures, and they may be unknowingly obtained from illegally hunted birds.
Kori bustards have a naturally low reproductive rate, which increases the challenge for the species in recovering from declines.
How does this affect humans?
People living in areas near kori bustard habitat need both electricity and sources of income. People who are fly- fishing enthusiasts on the other side of the world may not know the source of the feathers they buy. Conservationists seek to research ways to prevent power line collisions, provide alternatives to bushmeat to create a means of income that won’t harm kori bustards, and raise awareness and provide alternative feather sources for the fly-fishing community.
What is Zoo Atlanta doing to help?
Zoo Atlanta is a vital source of support for conservation programs making a difference in the field and in the wild – where our help is needed the most.
Zoo Atlanta is an active participant in the Kori Bustard SSP, and we collect naturally molted feathers that otherwise would be discarded so that their beauty may be enjoyed by recreational anglers and fly-tying hobbyists.
The Kori Bustard Feather Project is a partnership between zoos in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and a fly fisherman. Zoos collect and send naturally molted feathers from kori bustards in human care, and he distributes them to the fly-fishing community in the U.S., at no cost, to reduce demand for illegally hunted birds. As a result, many in the community who receive feathers donate to conservation projects.
What can you do to help?
The choices we make here at home brings us closer to the African savanna than we have ever been before. Research the products you buy to ensure that you are not inadvertently purchasing animal products that support the illegal wildlife trade.
You have a voice! Support policies that protect wildlife. Be aware of policy changes that may have a negative impact on laws created to protect species and their habitats.
If traveling to Africa or to other parts of the world, engage in responsible ecotourism that helps sustain local communities. If shopping or dining abroad, do your research before purchasing items that may support the illegal wildlife trade.
Spread the word about the collection of feathers from illegally-hunted kori bustards to those in the fishing community. Share the Kori Bustard Feather Project as a source that doesn’t harm birds in the wild.
Make choices that use energy and fuel responsibly: carpool, bike or walk to work; unplug electronics when not in use; support your local farmers market or purchase foods grown no more than 50 miles from your home.
You can also help native birds in your own backyard by growing native plants that will provide food and shelter. You can bird-proof your home by reducing the reflection on your windows by adding treatments like stickers, screens or cords that make your windows more visible to birds and turning off unnecessary lights and closing shades or drapes at night, which can prevent confusion among the many birds that migrate during nighttime.
Interpretive Information
Kori bustards will follow animals that live in herds and also forage in recently burnt areas, in order to feed on the insects and small animals that have been disturbed by movement or fire.
Lions, leopards, jackals, hyenas, caracals (a medium-sized cat), raptors and other predators will prey on kori bustards, with chicks being especially vulnerable.
Koris produce vocalizations including: barking when nervous or startled, growling when defensive, males booming during breeding season, chicks chirping when being fed or crying when in distress, and females grunting to communicate with chicks.
When defensive, kori bustards will bark or growl, bend forward, extend their wings, and fan their tail feathers in order to look larger.
Carmine bee-eaters have a mutualistic relationship with kori bustards as well as with savanna herbivores. The bee-eater will perch on the kori bustard’s back to try and eat some of the insects that they stir up while foraging. This relationship may also be beneficial to the kori bustard, as the bee-eater’s behavior may alert them to the presence of predators.
Their activity cycle is usually to wake before sunrise to prey on insects, and then take short periods of rest during the day when it’s the hottest.
Most birds use a scooping method to drink water, using their beaks like a spoon. Water resources are limited in the kori bustards’ dry, native range so they have a special method of drinking water. Kori bustards are one of the few bird species that sucks water up, using their beaks like a straw before raising their heads to swallow.
Kori bustards do not migrate but may move locally.
Kori bustards will open their beaks and flutter their gular skin to help keep themselves cool. They often do this while sunbathing. Gular fluttering is the bird equivalent of panting in mammals.
Koris are the national bird of Botswana.
References
AZA Gruiformes TAG 2009. Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) Care Manual. Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Silver Spring, MD. pp.113.
BirdLife International. (2016). Ardeotis kori. Retrieved June 11, 2019 from: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22691928/0
Bustard, Kori. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2019, from http://www.jacksonvillezoo.org/listingDetails.aspx?listingID=7178&pageID=15580
Emmanuel C Mmassy, Robert D Fyumagwa, Kjetil Bevanger & Eivin Røskaft (2018): Breeding ecology of Kori Bustard Ardeotis kori strunthiunculus in the Serengeti National Park, Ostrich, DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2017.1404502
Hallager, Sara. (2013). Natural History. In 2013 International Studbook for the Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) [PDF file].
Hancock, P., & Weiersbye, I. (2016). Birds of Botswana (T. J. Stephanie, Ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Lichtenberg, E.M. & Hallager, S. J Ethol (2008) 26: 17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-006-0030-z
Martin, Graham & Shaw, Jessica. (2010). Bird collisions with power lines: Failing to see the way ahead?. Biological Conservation. 143. 2695-2702. 10.1016/j.biocon.2010.07.014.
Senyatso, K. J., Collar, N. J. and Dolman, P. M. (2013), Assessing range‐wide conservation status change in an unmonitored widespread African bird species. Diversity Distrib., 19: 106-119. doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2012.00909.x
http://aviansag.org/Fact_Sheets/Gruiformes/Kori_Bustard.pdf
Updated July 2019