January 16, 2002
By Lucille Davie
NOTICED that there are fewer of those nasty Parktown Prawns around Johannesburg? Well, you've got hadeda birds to thank for the disappearance of Public Enemy Number One.
Parktown Prawns, hideous oversized brown mole crickets with a habit of popping unexpectedly out of kitchen drawers, from behind crockery or from under slippers, have long been among the small terrors of suburban Johannesburg.
But a long period of drought in the late seventies and early eighties changed that, driving the hadedas from the rural areas into city suburbs where gardens mostly stay green and food is plentiful, says Geoff Lockwood, ornithologist and resident manager and education officer at the Delta Environmental Centre, 15 kilometres north of the city centre.
Jo'burgers know hadedas well: they are often woken in the mornings by the loud ha-ha-ha-dahah of the large, dull-grey bird with its striking curved beak. It is a member of the ibis family, of which there are three others in South Africa: the sacred ibis (white body with black tail and neck), the bald ibis (red head, green body), and the glossy ibis (mostly glossy olive green).
Hadedas, like other garden birds, have adapted to urban life relatively quickly:
although not traditionally fish catchers, they have learnt how to grab fish out of garden ponds.
"They wouldn't normally catch fish, but by chance they probably wandered over to ponds to drink, after feeding on a lawn, and found the goldfish and small koi an easy, captive catch," says Lockwood.
They also appear resistant to insecticides: "They don't pick up problems from pesticides being used in gardens, they are doing better than one would expect," he says.
The birds have not only spread to Johannesburg – they are now found throughout the country and right down the coast to Cape Town. They are also found in the rest of Africa, particularly south of the Sahara.
Mike Harman, curator of birds at the Johannesburg Zoo, agrees on their adaptability. "Hadedas rely on people's backyards, in fact backyards are their bread and butter, where they scavenge the compost heap and enjoy insects and worms. They commonly eat dog's food left lying in the yard."
The species has even adapted to eating pellets. "In the Zoo we have around 200 permanent sacred ibises which have become a nuisance because they eat the antelopes' pellets," says Harman.
It's hard to establish how many there are in the city and suburbs because they don't breed communally, but nest in tall trees, which makes counting almost impossible.
"They make their nests high up in trees, often pine trees and poplars. Their nests are bowl-shaped, made of twigs, and not particularly big for their size. They produce 2-4 eggs of a pale olive, greenish colour, marked with reddish streaks and smudges. The chicks follow their parents around for a couple of months, making a hissing sound while demanding food," adds Lockwood.
There are about 60-70 nesting in Delta Park, says Lockwood, indicating that they prefer the low-traffic areas that the Park offers. But not always: "I have come across six nesting in one garden, when the resident phoned to say they were being woken early every morning because of the rowdy birds in their garden."
"They are one of the highlights of Jo'burg," says Harman.
So, while you may curse their loud waking habits, remember that you haven't had to chase a Parktown Prawn out from your kitchen in quite a while.
