The northern species extends from Senegal to Somalia and down through Kenya; the southern species—which visits us in the Luangwa—is found from southern DRC across to western Tanzania and down to the northern parts of South Africa.
These birds are unmistakable! Apart from their northern cousins—which have a green face—there is no other bird that resembles them. Each year, they start to appear in Luangwa in the early dry season and announce their arrival with loud, resonant ‘terk, terk, terk’ calls from high in the sky.