Palm-nut vulture swoops in at Ramsgate
The palm-nut vulture was spotted in Ramsgate on Monday evening.
It was an evening filled with excitement when a lucky John Airey had the opportunity of spotting a palm-nut vulture recently.
John often holidays on the South Coast in Ramsgate South, and it was on Monday evening when he made the rare siting.
“I saw the bird from my patio overlooking the Admiralty nature belt,” he explained.
Being a novice birdwatcher, this was a phenomenal experience for John.
Palm-nut vultures are found throughout most of Africa’s coastal regions.
However, South Africa and Mozambique are the only Southern African sub-regions known to have resident breeding pairs.
There are currently only seven known nesting sites and a total of around 40 individual birds in South Africa, making them rare and even more exciting to have had one spotted here on the South Coast.
As the name suggests, palm-nut vultures feed mainly on fleshy fruit-husks of the oil palm and on palm-fruits of the Raffia palm which is unusual for birds of prey.
It also occasionally eats crabs, molluscs, fish, frogs, reptile eggs and some domestic poultry.
In comparison to other vultures, the palm-nut vulture is relatively small and short-tailed with distinctive orange to red coloured facial skin.
While this vulture is a lot more rarer and localised in South Africa, it is not known to be under any immediate threat.
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