The Urban Birder

Picathartes gymnocephalus, commonly called yellow-headed rockfowl or bare-headed rockfowl, is a queer looking bird that is very difficult to encounter away from its nest or breeding site. As its name suggests, this vulnerable species has a predominantly yellow head with black around the ears. Some tribes in southern Sierra Leone actually worship these strange looking birds and at particular seasons of the year perform food sacrifices below the huge boulder where they build their nest.

Their nests are constructed with mud and bedded with moss and straw on huge overhanging rocks sometimes close to streams between a metre and four metres above the ground. Ideally, it's preferable that there is a stream or water running either under the boulder or within a range of 50m to the nest. Nesting spots have been known to contain up to eight nests in constituting a nesting colony.

Yellow-headed rockfowls are known to feed on millipedes, centipedes, forest cockroaches, crickets and other invertebrates available in their ecosystem. There is definitely more to be unravelled about their mysterious lifestyle, especially away from their breeding sites. They are a vulnerable rainforest species and threats include encroachment, farming, logging, pole cutting and mining.

Another species exists in the Ivory Coast — Picathartes oreas; commonly called the Red-headed Rockfowl or Grey-necked Picathartes. It has a blue forehead, with red at the back and black on the cheeks and around the eyes.

My first sighting of this Picathartes species this year was on the 10th May 2008 on Mount Sugar Loaf, about thirty minutes drive from the centre of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone.

I woke up at six in the morning, rode my off-road XR400 dirt bike to the slopes of Mount Sugar Loaf and hiked for about twenty-five to thirty minutes before getting to the huge mysterious overhanging boulder where the nest was. It is made of mud and nicely glued with straws on the roof of a cave.

On my first visit, I watched three birds for five hours; one was incubating a pair of eggs while the others were perching on a tree on the cliff. It seems that the three birds were the mum and dad and the young from the previous breeding season.

My second visit lasted six hours and I only noticed one bird and a youngster that was approximately two weeks old. The head was greyish black (black on the adults) and light yellow and bald (bright yellow on the adults). The sides of the cheeks where the gape ended was yellow just like what is observed on all chicks. The nestling was fed every twenty to thirty-five minutes by the single parent observed.

Charles Showers
Sierra Leone