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Lophotis ruficrista
This is a smaller bustard, about 50 cm tall, of earthy colours when non-breeding, and black belly. In breeding attire, the male sports a distinguished rufous crest, visible only shortly during display.
Common resident, a species of distribution limited to dry habitats of Southern Africa. Here observed in arid shrubland of northwestern part of Namibia, somewhere deep in the bush close to a rural road. The environment is arid open acacia tree-and-shrub, very dry (but still magnificent and rich in wildlife) at the moment, following a three-year dry-spell. At mid-day, these two were pecking their way under the bush and away of the road, under a blinding light and scorching heat.
Another lifer for me from Namibia - but I had this post published earlier under the wrong ID. In my hurry to screen the huge mass of pics taken during my trip to Namibia (and to keep up with my 'normal' job and its workload), I identified and posted this one, during fe weeks, as Rüppell's korhaan... sorry about that, and good thing is I found the time to go through my pics for a second and third time before closing the file...
1 Comment
Awesome spotting, Zlatan!