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Hamerkop | Scopus umbretta
Hamerkop | Avemartillo
A uniformly brown wader with a heavy bill and a backward-pointing crest that give the head the shape of a hammer. In the region it is an African species at the northern limit of its range: it lives only in wadis with running water in the mountains and coastal plain of south-west Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where its huge stick nests in fig and acacia trees are conspicuous.
Voice
A high, nasal yip or yip-purr, and a fast rattling cackle, kek-kek-kek-kek, mainly during group gatherings in which several birds circle each other and climb on each other's backs.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
Medium-sized and compact, all dull brown with a faint purple gloss on the back and faint barring on the tail. The black bill is deep, laterally compressed and hook-tipped; together with the thick nuchal crest it forms the hammer-shaped head. Legs fairly short and black. The sexes are alike and juveniles resemble adults. Flies with the neck half-retracted and slow, deep wingbeats, sometimes soaring in circles.
Confusion species
No other brown wader in the region has this hammer-shaped head. A flying bird at a distance may recall a small brown raptor or a juvenile Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), but the heavy bill in line with the crest makes it unmistakable.
Habitat
Wadis with permanent or seasonal running water, pools below waterfalls, small reservoirs, irrigation channels and watered terraced fields, from the coastal plain to over 2,000 m in the mountains. Shuffles its feet in shallow water to flush prey: mainly frogs and toads, also small fish, larvae and aquatic insects. Needs large trees, usually figs or acacias, or a rock ledge for its nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In the region only in south-west Arabia: in Saudi Arabia in the Asir mountains and the Tihama coastal plain from around Al Baha and Taif south to Jizan, and in western Yemen in the wadis of the western highlands and the Tihama. A resident that stays at the same water all year. Beyond the region throughout almost all of sub-Saharan Africa and on Madagascar.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the Asir, search wadis with running water and large fig trees, for example around Abha, Wadi Jizan and in the valleys below the escarpment, especially early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The enormous domed nest is often easier to find than the bird: a massive ball of sticks in a tree fork with a narrow entrance underneath.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. The isolated Arabian population is small and depends on wadis with water, which in south-west Arabia are declining through groundwater extraction, dams, drought and the construction of roads and buildings in the valleys.
Scientific name
Scopus umbretta | Gmelin, 1789
Gmelin described the species in 1789 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Scopus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Scopus is derived from the Greek skia, 'shadow'; the specific name umbretta, 'umber, dark brown', likewise points to the Hamerkop's dull brown plumage. umbretta derives from the French 'ombrette', 'little shade/shadow', for the plumage's uniform dark brown colour. The specimen the first description was based on came from Senegal.