Hey there Thick Head!

Can you imagine being called 'Thick Head'? Better yet, what about 'Spotted Thick Head'? or 'Spotted Thick-knee'? Believe it or not, it is the common name for one of our birds belonging to the Curlew family. The Afrikaans name 'Dikkop' sounds less rude somehow!

They are large, aggressive birds with  piercing yellow eyes and long yellow legs, and will take on a dog or cat with ease. Their diet is varied, they eat all kinds of insects, spiders, lizards, small mice, and eggs and chicks of the White-fronted Plover. (That's a bit cannibalistic I think!) Pity they don't seem to eat snails though! During the day they are very relaxed and quiet and blend in with the surrounding countryside, but at night we see them running in the road and hear their loud, mournful call. We have several pairs here, and at the beginning of February, Rob noticed a nesting pair in the old farm just behind our wall.

So well camouflaged! 

This was taken on the 1 February and you have to look carefully to make out the bird in the middle of the picture!


The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground, usually unlined but sometimes defined by a stone or two. They usually nest in the open, with the mate hanging around and keeping the female company.

The male on guard nearby.

I did some research (yes, my Google friend) and looked them up in our bird book, and it appears that both male and female share the tedious job of sitting on the eggs. Now, here's where the information varies. The bird book reckons that the eggs hatch in 24 days, but several sites that I found on the internet give the hatching time from 24 days to a month. That could make a huge difference in our birds circumstance, as it's now the 6 March and she is still sitting!
How long will she sit? Does something suddenly trigger a 'oh this is for the birds' moment? Will she still be there at Christmas?

A friend of mine once had a tame goose that sat for months on a brick! Day in and day out, until finally she was given some fertile chicken eggs to hatch. She was so proud of her babies!

I hope that her patience is rewarded.

Meanwhile our Dikkop sits on.........and on..........and on.........