Hadedas invade the Kwando

The Hadeda ibis, that large, noisy, raucous bird that is the bane of gardens in Gauteng, has recently been confirmed as breeding successfully in the Zambezi Region near Namushasha River Lodge.According to lodge manager Otto von Kaschke the brood left the nest earlier in January.

The Hadeda ibis was suspected of breeding in Namibian territory but this has never been confirmed by observation of photographs. One of the guides at Namushasha River Lodge, Lennox Matengu, discovered the Hadeda nest on 23 November 2014 in a large tree. By 6 December one of the chicks had already hatched. The ibis family deserted the nest in early January.
The manager of Namushasha River Lodge, Otto von Kaschke, first noticed a Hadeda nest in November 2013, about 1.5 km downstream of the lodge. Since the bird in the nest seemed agitated it is likely that it was incubating.
This is only the fifth time that Hadeda ibises were seen breeding in Namibia. Two nests with chicks were discovered in November 2012 and 2013 on the Kwando River in the vicinity of Mazambala Island Lodge and another about six years ago at Susuwe Camp. The Hadeda used to be considered a rare local species although are ubiquitous in southern Africa. Similar to their dispersions in Gauteng and the Western Cape they are now found in Zambezi, the Kavangos, and along the Orange River in the south.