Kori Bustard

Common resident. Identified by huge size and crested head; only likely to be confused with [Ludwig’s Bustard] and [Denham’s Bustard]. Sexes are alike, but male is about 20 per cent larger than female. Walks slowly with measured strides and flies reluctantly. In courtship the male calls a deep ‘wum, wum, wum, wum, wummmmm’. Male also performs an elaborate courtship display: the throat-pouch is inflated and the frontal neck-feathers splayed outwards revealing their white bases; the head with raised crest is drawn back; the wings are drooped and the tail deflected upwards and forwards to the neck with the white undertail coverts splayed outwards conspicuously (see illustration of male in partial display). Occurs singly, in pairs or in groups in open woodland, bushveld and semi-arid grassland in the Karoo and Namibia.