Mole National Park, Ghana
June 2011

The Hamerkop is distributed throughout Africa south of the Sahara including Madagascar and the south-west of the Arabian Peninsula. It is found in a wide variety of wetlands but needs to be close to trees for roosting and nesting.

It is dark brown overall giving rise to its specific name "umbretta" from the colour umber. The unmistakable feature is the stout bill balanced by a backward-pointing crest which gives the head the shape of a hammer, "hammerhead" translating as Hamerkop in Afrikaans.