Red-billed queleas - feathered locusts of Africa

I was going through some of my African facts with my friend Robbie Stevens, who is an excellent voice over artist by the way.  And one of the facts that he found fascinating was that red-billed queleas are the most abundant wild bird species and have an estimated adult bird population of 1.5 billion.  Thinking about it I find that too many to compute and we tried to imagine 1.5 billion, and failed. 

I have seen these birds in action when I was living in Zimbabwe. This enormous flock, that blotted out the sun, arrived and began nesting in the Save Valley Conservancy, thousands upon thousands of small finch sized birds making nests in any tree that they can find, the noise was deafening.  Vegetation from miles around was being stripped bare for nesting materials and seeds and flowering plants were being decimated for food.  It was an extraordinary spectacle.  They moved like locusts, leaving a wake of destruction as they crossed the savannah.  The Conservancy was hit hard as these marauders spent more time than usual in the area. 

But there were some species benefiting from this valuable food source, namely snakes and crocodiles.  There were snakes galore in the area feeding off chicks that had inadvertently fallen out of their nests and also eggs from within the nest.  But my most memorable experience was watching the crocodiles feeding on the quelea.  They would remain just under the surface of the water and when the quelea came down to drink the crocodiles would launch themselves out of the water and snap up any unsuspecting bird.  The crocodiles certainly got a few birds on each snap, but I wondered whether the energy used was worth the feathered popcorn bites that they got.

And then after a number of weeks this swarm of birds suddenly upt and left, leaving the African bush in a state of bewilderment from this feathered onslaught. What a remarkable species.