Short Note

Removal (and attempted removal) of material from a Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus nest by a starling and a Hooded Vulture

Published in: Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology
Volume 88 , issue 2 , 2017 , pages: 183–187

DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2017.1316786

Author(s): Lindy J Thompson School of Life Sciences, South Africa , John P Davies Lawson’s Birding, Wildlife and Custom Safaris, South Africa , Keith L Bildstein Acopian Centre for Conservation Learning, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, USA , Colleen T Downs School of Life Sciences, South Africa

Keywords: camera trap , nest material kleptoparasitism , nest material theft , Lamprotornis spp , vulture

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Abstract

Relatively little is documented about nest material theft in vultures. We used camera traps to monitor Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus nests for a year. We report camera trap photographs of a starling Lamprotornis sp. removing what appeared to be dung from an inactive Hooded Vulture nest on Cleveland Game Reserve, north-eastern South Africa, in October 2016. We also had evidence of a Hooded Vulture attempting to remove twigs from the same nest in August 2016. This behaviour is previously unrecorded in Hooded Vultures and, although seemingly rare, it represents an attempt to reduce the energetic costs of nest building in this species.

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