On a short drive in the bush this morning — mainly to check the condition of the local roads and to see which areas are opening up after the rains, I spotted hamerkops in a small group along the edge of a drainage channel. They are often found in groups of 3-10, sharing a feeding source or resting on the only available stump in a fast-flowing stream.
I also know that they have the tendency of performing a strange and — as far as I know — unexplained social bonding behaviour where one bird jumps on the back of another and flaps its wings while calling. It looks like mating, but no mating takes place, and sometimes a third bird will jump on the back of the second, forming a 3-storey-hamerkop. Clearly, once the 3rd bird is introduced to the situation, with no animosity between any of the birds, mating is not an explanation.
Sure enough, soon after I arrived, one bird jumped onto another and they gave a good show of this unusual behaviour.
