Hamerkop

Description:

Medium sized wader, standing at some 50 cm of height. Easily recognizable, this is an all brown bird with a diagnostic and really unique head in a form of anvil or hammer (which is the origin of the name - hammerkopf, hammerkop, anvilhead).

Habitat:

Hamerkop is an African sedentary bird, abundant all over continent, including Madagascar, but also some parts of Arabian peninsula. I saw it often in Ethiopia, in all regions (highlands and semi-desertic lowlands), but usually close to water bodies - lakes and marshes; or birkads and ponds in drier zones - such is the case here: close to human settlement, close to a small private birkad (sort of cemented water reservoir, used as a storage of rain water for animal consumption mainly).