News / Unusual Sightings

Courtship dance of Red-crested Korhaan

17 Jan 2008

Location:  Pafuri Camp, Makuleke Concession, Kruger National Park
Date:  January 2008
Observers: Callum Sargent

The Red-crested Korhaan (Eupodotis ruficrista) is a cryptically marked ground-dwelling bird commonly encountered in South Africa's bushveld savannah areas. The male's summer aerial display flight is certainly a true marvel of nature. All in an effort to advertise undisputed control over his territory and to attract the opposite sex as a result, the male starts vocalizing on the ground with an ascending piping call. All of a sudden and as the call reaches a crescendo it then flies vertically up into the sky. On reaching a certain height the korhaan merely folds its wings, and plummets back down towards terra firma, body seemingly prone - almost as if having been shot in mid-air. Shortly before hitting the ground, it opens its wings for a soft, elegant landing. Rather impressive and the reason it is sometimes called the suicide bird.

Still it does not explain the reason for the seemingly inappropriate name. After all this is clearly a bird in which camouflage is important as a means of avoiding predation. Surely if it had a bright red crest it would be vulnerable to certain predators and unable to skulk into the background and avoid detection?

This is certainly the case, but as is pretty typical of birds the male, in order to attract a mate, needs some sort of physical plumage feature to spark interest in potential partners; Hence another display in the species - this time a terrestrial courtship ritual rather than the more obvious aerial territorial display. This is not often seen and even more rarely photographed and entails the following.

Having attracted a female through his territorial display the male then approaches her and bobbing up and down on stiff legs with a hunched appearance, displays his white shoulder patches and raises his red crest (from which the bird gets its common name) into a halo like headdress. He makes a sharp clacking noise with his beak and together the result is a truly elaborate display that reaches a crescendo as the female moves all closer.

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