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!"

Today I show you a little bird I've only seen a few times, in the Orange Free State Province. This is a Double-banded Courser, Smutsornis africanus. The name means 'Smuts' Bird from Africa' � I'm not sure, but it may be named for famed South African statesman Jan Smuts. Coursers are classified in the Glareolidae, the Courser and Pratincole Family. The two-fold division of the family between coursers and pratincoles is rather unusual. Coursers are long-legged running birds of grasslands, dry woodlands and deserts, very similar to plovers and lapwings, while pratincoles are short-legged, long-winged birds, somewhat like gulls and terns, that hunt on the wing over open areas. The name 'pratincole' means 'grass-dweller'. There's one species, the Australian Pratincole, that has somewhat longer legs than the others, but is still a typical pratincole. Despite the dissimilarity between them, pratincoles and coursers are closer relatives of each other than of gulls and terns on the one hand, or lapwings and plovers on the other. But they are all members of the Shorebird and Wader order, the Charadriiformes.

The Glareolidae today are characteristic of warmer regions of the Old World, from southern Europe to Africa, to Asia, and Australia. Fossils of them have been found in Eastern and Western Europe, and there's a possible species even known from the Miocene of North America, though it's not so clear that it actually was a glareolid. Today, the greatest diversity of the family is in Africa, where several courser and pratincole species can be found. One Asian species, Jerdon's Courser, is critically endangered, once feared extinct.

The Double-banded Courser, at least, is still quite common and widespread. It occurs in two widely separated regions, the one in the dry subdeserts and grasslands of Southern Africa, the other in the dry savannah bushlands of north-east Africa, mainly in Kenya, but also in parts of Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia. If seen well, it is very easy to identify, with the two, neat black bands across its breast. The rest of its plumage is streaked and scalloped in black, brown and buff, giving it excellent camouflage in its scrubby, stony habitat. It is slightly smaller than the familiar Crowned Lapwing. While related coursers are largely nocturnal, the double-banded courser can be active by day or by night. They do tend to rest in the shade during very hot days. They can occur singly or in groups of up to four birds, which often would be made up by a couple and their offspring from the most recent two broods. They use their keen eyesight to spot insects, and their running speed to catch them. They're partial to the abundant harvester termites. These termites differ from other termites in being pigmented, allowing them to be active outside during the day, and in eating mainly grass rather than wood.

In Southern Africa, double-banded coursers are mostly residents where they occur, but may move around in response to the weather. When it is too dry, their insect prey may become too scarce, but when it is too wet, the grass may grow too tall and they will have difficulty in spotting their food. They may also move into areas heavily grazed by large mammals, which keeps the grass short and exposes the soil. They may breed at any time of the year, but in this case tend to choose the drier periods, often just before the rains would start. They form tightly-bonded couples, and the male does a little dance for the female at the start of the breeding season. They lay typically just a single egg out on open, stony ground – the eggs very much resemble pebbles. The parents brood it often to keep it cool rather than warm, as the sun in these desert regions can be extremely intense by day and may cook an exposed egg in short order. Consequently, on very hot days, parents will be extremely reluctant to abandon their eggs. But in milder weather, they may leave the egg for long periods, during which they trust its camouflage to keep it safe. The little chick hatches in about 25 days, and leaves the nest within 24 hours. Like other shorebirds, it is downy, open-eyed and able to run from the outset. But the chicks remain close to the nest for a few days, after which it accompanies its parents, who show it what to eat and how. They will offer it insects at first; at about 5 to 6 weeks, it's able to provide for itself. In good years, parents may raise more than one brood.

Double-banded coursers are sparsely but widely distributed, and at present in no danger of extinction.

Willem

16.10.23 Front Page

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