Towheeblog

This Hamerkop was resting on an abandoned boat in the Mabamba Swamp along Lake Victoria, Uganda.

This messy pile of sticks is a Hamerkop nest in a large tree at the Entebbe Botanical Garden.  Note the entrance near the bottom of the pile.

And here’s a Hamerkop hunting along the edge of Lake Mbuto.  The Hamerkop is a predator.

Like his distant cousin, the Shoebill, Mr. Hamerkop is unique with a taxonomic family all to himself.   The Hamerkop is widespread around fresh water in sub-Saharan Africa.  They have long been revered and feared  by locals, rarely pestered or persecuted and they can become semi-tame.  Like the one sleeping on the boat and photographed by me as we canoed past within a few feet.  In Boer Dutch hamer=hammer, kop=head.