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Palm-Nut Vulture | Gypohierax angolensis
Palmgier | Buitre Palmero
The Palm-Nut Vulture is a black-and-white, eagle-like vulture that is largely vegetarian: the husk of oil-palm and raffia-palm fruit forms the bulk of its diet. In South Africa it is a rarity, with a small breeding population in the raffia palms of the Zululand coast.
Voice
Usually silent. At the nest and in display a low, growling pruk-kurr and a dry quacking.
Recording: Louis A. Hansen — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
57–65 cm, wingspan 135–150 cm. Adults are mostly white, with black scapulars, black secondaries and a black tail with a broad white tip. The primaries are white with black tips, giving a white hand and black arm in flight. Bare orange-red skin surrounds the eye; the bill is heavy, yellowish and eagle-like, and the legs are flesh-coloured to yellow. Juveniles are plain dark brown with yellow or greyish-yellow facial skin and take three to four years to acquire white plumage. Flight is powerful, with rapid wingbeats alternating with glides.
Confusion species
African Fish Eagle Icthyophaga vocifer has a white head and breast but a chestnut belly and wing coverts and a white tail. Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus has a yellow face, a slender bill and a white wedge-shaped tail. White-Headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis has a black breast and a pink bill with a blue base. Young Palm-Nut Vultures resemble young Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus, but have a heavier bill and a feathered head.
Habitat
Coastal forest, mangroves, lagoons and river valleys with oil palms or raffia palms; outside the breeding season also along coasts, lakes and large rivers. Besides palm fruit it eats fish, crabs, molluscs and carrion. It nests on a stick platform high in a tree, often close to the palms.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In South Africa a small breeding population at Mtunzini and around Kosi Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal; further along the coast of Mozambique, in the Zambezi valley, in Malawi and northern and western Zambia, and widespread in Angola. Wandering young birds are seen elsewhere, as far as the Eastern Cape, eastern Zimbabwe and northern Namibia and Botswana. Beyond the region it occurs through West and Central Africa and along the East African coast to Kenya.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In South Africa the Raffia Palm Monument at Mtunzini is the classic site: early in the morning the birds sit in the crowns of the palms or fly over the forest. Along the Mozambique coast look for them at estuaries with palms. Note the contrast between white hand and black arm in flight.
Conservation status
Not threatened, and locally common in West and Central Africa thanks to oil-palm plantations. In South Africa the species is rare because of its small population and the limited extent of raffia palms; protecting these palm stands is essential for its survival in the country.
Scientific name
Gypohierax angolensis | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as Falco angolensis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Gypohierax was introduced in 1836 by Rüppell. Gypohierax comes from Greek gups, 'vulture', and hierax, 'hawk' — a bird intermediate between vulture and eagle. angolensis means 'from Angola', where the first specimen came from. The specimen the first description was based on came from Angola.