Alien Birds In Cape Town

Crows, Peacocks And Upsetting The Avian Balance.

Why are too many birds of specific species a problem?

I have always considered birds to be harbingers. They carry a message, sometimes in a subtle almost occult manner and at other times in a more direct and manifest manner. Just as Hitchcock used crows as a horror movie theme, there are times when birds can appear in the middle of a meditation or thought and give it gravitas or emphasis. Birds are the angels of the natural world. As such they carry messages for us in many ways.

We have had a proliferation of crows in the South Peninsula of Cape Town – particularly in the Noordhoek region - since 2000. They are a sign that all is not well. A similar situation has occurred up the West Coast to the north of Cape Town, where crows have displaced numerous other endemic birds primarily because of human interference and habitat disturbance. Crows are opportunistic and fill ecological niches that open up when disturbance occurs.

It may quite often be that we do not clearly observe the moment of the upheaval. Ecological balance is often upset in an indiscernible manner to all but the most finely attuned or specialist observer. But we know when opportunistic species like crows suddenly become overly dominant predators and scavengers within a new niche, that something has gone wrong. This is why the rapid rise of the crows – in this case the Pied Crow (Corvus albus) - worries me and upsets me when I see them scavenging the nests of small resident birds.

Their numbers have swollen in my particular neck of the woods from one pair in the early ‘00’s to at least 20 crows at present. I do not know if we can allow this proliferation to continue. However there is one obstacle to reducing the problem – people.

We have also had a proliferation of another bird, this time a non-endemic, invasive species from Asia. Here I am talking about the so-called peafowls, Pavo cristatus, also known as peacocks, even though this refers to only one sex and leaves aside the peahen in deeply symbolic avian sexism! Whatever. The peafowl have likewise proliferated in this area.

However we have a long history of resident peafowl here. They were resident in Noordhoek in the de Goede Hoop estate and became such a problem that they were eradicated in the late 1980s, being shot out by professional hunters. However a few got away and their numbers have now swelled to such an extent that they are again becoming a problem, displacing small endemic birds.

Peafowl are aggressive flocking birds and I have had reports of them attacking small birds nesting sites, driving away the parents and killing the chicks. I have even had a report of them attacking kittens, cornering them in the garden, ignoring the mother cat and even hose pipes being used on them.

However a suggestion that some sort of solution is needed to deal with these aggressive and invasive peafowl has met with howls of protest from a few isolated bunny huggers, who anthropomorphise the issue and feel that killing such beautiful birds would be a pity. And herein lies the rub.

Expert birders in the area tell me that Burchells coucal (Centropus superciliosus) and the Hoopoe (Upupa epops) are becoming almost absent from the area. I know when I first moved here twenty years ago these were both common residents but thought that increasing urbanisation had displaced these two distinct species.

However I have had reports that Peafowl have played a role in this displacement – I am not an expert birder and do not know where these birds nest or how they could be vulnerable. However I am told by observers that Peafowl have been noted taking young of these birds. This would explain why I no longer hear the Coucal foretelling me of rain or no longer notice the flash of the hoopoe and see its bobbing crest on my lawn.

So I personally don’t care what the bunny huggers say. All the same it would be advisable to ask for more research and input and for people to give me solutions to rid ourselves of these two plague bird species.

Crows are remarkable, intelligent birds. Peafowl are beautiful but otherwise unremarkable except for their culinary desirability. Perhaps we should just make like ancient Romans and eat the damn things? I will seek out peafowl nests and remove their eggs and will endeavour to find out how we can control the burgeoning population of the crows. All advice is welcome.

I want to do this not because I dislike either of these bird species but because they are sending us a signal that something is locally out of whack. There is an ecological disturbance. Although both of these birds disturb the ecology in subtle ways and although people are without doubt the biggest threat to our local biodiversity it would be remiss of true ecologists to stand aside and do nothing. So I ask you to join me in finding solutions to these two problem species and in restoring the status quo to a more balanced situation.

I am sure there will be flak but hell, we should become inured to that! At least we have the avian angels on our side this time.

Back to Ekogaia Home Page

Page about Alien Birds In Cape Town