With their large bodies and impressive wingspan, seeing a kori bustard in flight is a memorable experience. On the ground, where they spend most of their time, they display a range of interesting vocalisations and behaviours. Sadly, these beautiful birds are threatened by powerline collisions. While their ability to fly is impressive, they have limited sight and manoeuvrability during flight, reducing their ability to avoid powerlines, even marked ones. New research is investigating different ways to reduce powerline collisions to halt the decline of these fascinating birds.
Interesting facts
The kori bustard is the heaviest flying bird in Africa, closely contending with the great bustard for the title of the heaviest flying bird in the world. The males can be more than twice the size of Females. To get their large bodies in the air, they need to either run or jump before take-off (1). Once in the air, they are good flyers and can pick up speed. While they spend most of their time walking, they use flight to escape threats and to move to different habitats.
Habitat and diet
Kori bustards live in open habitats, such as grasslands, savannas, and agricultural areas, where they eat insects, reptiles, small rodents, birds, carrion, seed, berries, and roots (2). They are also known to eat acacia gum, which gives them their Afrikaans common name, “gompou” (gum peacock).
Vocalisations
Kori bustards produce a wide variety of vocalisations. They make a barking alarm signal when they spot a potential threat. Females make a growling sound when defending their chicks. During the breeding season, males produce loud, deep booming sounds while snapping their bills open and shut. These calls are meant to attract females and can be heard up to 1 km away. Females make little grunting noises to call their chicks to food. Observations of captive individuals have reported kori bustards producing a loud roar (similar to that of a lion) when captured. (1)
Displays
Kori bustards also have a range of interesting displays. When they feel threatened, they lift and fan their tails with their wings outstretched, feathers ruffled, and head stretched forward. They may vibrate their wings and tail. During their courtship ritual, males chase the female with their head crest and tail raised. They will stand with their tail and crest raised, and their throat half inflated. Next, they will drop their tail and wing feathers, stand with their neck extended and fully inflated like a balloon, bill pointing upwards, and make loud, booming calls, as described above. (1)
Breeding
Kori bustards are solitary birds with males and females only meeting up during the breeding season, when males will mate with several females. The females are the sole caretakers of eggs and chicks. Their nest is often a simple hollow in the ground, hidden by surrounding vegetation or rocks, where the female will lay one or two eggs. While incubating the eggs, the female will leave the nest only occasionally and for short periods to find food.
Conservation status and threads
The kori bustard is listed as near threatened due to rapid population declines throughout its range. Kori bustards are among the birds with the highest powerline collision rates. As energy infrastructure expands in Africa, this threat is increasing. Furthermore, their habitats are threatened by fragmentation, land use change, and bush encroachment. They also get poached for traditional medicine, bush meat, and the illegal pet trade. (2)
Conservation
While markers on powerlines are effective at reducing powerline collisions in many large bird species, such as blue cranes, they are not effective for bustard species, probably because of their poor vision and lack of manoeuvrability during flight (3). A recent study suggests that building parallel powerlines with staggered towers might reduce bustard collisions, since most collisions occur in the middle of powerlines (4). So if a new powerline needs to be built parallel to an existing powerline, the towers of the new powerline should be aligned midway between the towers of the old powerline.
Urgent conservation action needed
This species’ numbers continue to decline, as more and more are killed in powerline collisions, and this rate of loss will increase as energy infrastructure development expands throughout their range. To prevent the disappearance of this stunning bird, more research should examine their movement patterns within their habitat, quantify the effects of powerlines on populations, and develop new ways to reduce powerline collisions.
References
- Lichtenberg EM, Hallager S. 2006. A description of commonly observed behaviours for the kori bustard (Ardeotis kori). Journal of Ethology, 26: 17-34
- BirdLife International. 2025. Ardeotis kori. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T22691928A246077557.
- Shaw JM, Reid TA, Gibbons BK, Pretorius M, Jenkins AR, Visagie R, Michael MD, Ryan PG. 2021. A large-scale experiment demonstrates that line marking reduces mortality from power-line collisions for large terrestrial birds, but not for bustards, in the Karoo, South Africa. The Condor, 123(1): duaa067.
- Pallett J, Simmons RE, Brown CJ. 2022. Staggered towers on parallel transmission lines: a new mitigation measure to reduce collisions of birds, especially bustards. Namibian Journal of Environment, 6A: 14-21.
Immerse yourself in the African wilderness, expand your knowledge, and embark on a transformative learning experience with EcoTraining.
Sign up for the 7-day Birding in the Bush Course today!
For more information on the 7-day Birding in the Bush Course, please contact [email protected] or call +27 (0)13 7522532
The Kori Bustard l Birds of the Bush
EcoTraining brings you another episode in our Birds of the Bush series. We’ll tell you about the bush birds YOU want to see each month. We join Jon-Jon van Zyl as we look at the Kori Bustard (groundbird). This magnificent bird is known to be the heaviest flying bird in Africa, weighing as much as 19kg. Due to its weight, the Kori Bustard tries to fly as little as possible and prefers to spend most of its time on the ground. The bird has a voracious appetite and will consume anything that moves.
