Red-billed quelea
Quelea quelea
— Where the name comes from
Quelea is the genus name, of uncertain origin, repeated twice in the binomial. The Italian name, “red-billed quelea” like the English, refers to the male’s bright red breeding bill; it is also called the “feathered locust”, for the flocks that devastate cereal fields.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Passerines
- Habitat
- Dry savannah, grassland, cultivated fields
- Range
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Size
- 12 cm, 15–26 g
- Diet
- Seeds of wild grasses and cultivated cereals
- Lifespan
- 2–3 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It lives in flocks that can number millions of birds.
- 02
Breeding colonies cover hectares of trees, with hundreds of nests per tree.
- 03
When a flock moves it looks like a cloud of smoke.
— What sets it apart
It is the most numerous wild bird on the planet: estimates run to over a billion adults. A flock can eat tens of tonnes of sorghum, millet or wheat in a day, and for African farmers it is a calamity comparable to locusts. To contain it colonies are sprayed with pesticides and even blown up with explosives, and every year tens or hundreds of millions are killed without the overall population appearing to suffer: it breeds so fast that it makes good every loss.
