2. Black-headed Heron This is one of the largest birds to be seen at or over Africama, with its distinctive black head and long neck often in that characteristic and very attractive S-bend, with a small kink about half the way down, and a very elegant single wispy plume you can just see falling gently down from the back of their heads. They are also very widely distributed over sub-Saharan Africa. When they fly, they pull their heads back between their shoulders and bunch up the curves below. You often can see them in the evening, flying back to their roosts in the very tops of tall trees (called, unsurprisingly, ‘heronries’), uttering growling croaks as they go. In flight, they seem to row steadily across the sky, like elderly oarsmen across water. They are very patient feeders, standing stock still for hours (so it seems) in water, staring intently and ready to stab and grab with that dagger- like beak any unsuspecting fish or frog. But it’s not only in water that they hunt: there is one often in the vegetable garden at Africama; they use the same effective strategy there – just stand still and wait and the food will come to you. Birds of AFRICAMA House 8 Birds of AFRICAMA House 9