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Red-billed Quelea — printable fact sheet
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Red-billed Quelea
Quelea quelea
Quelea quelea is the most abundant wild bird on the planet — the post-breeding population is estimated at around 1.5 billion, and single roosts have held millions of individuals in a few hectares of reedbed or thornbush. It is a small weaver, about 12 cm, and it lives in flocks …
Did you know?
- Despite their enormous population, Red-billed Queleas are sometimes called 'Africa's most hated bird' due to the severe damage they can inflict on crops.
- Quelea colonies are so heavy that mature acacia branches snap under the combined weight of the nests, and the birds' droppings can kill the trees they nest in. Their preferred natural diet is small wild grass seeds, and they turn to sorghum and millet mainly when the wild seed crop fails — so drought, not appetite, is what turns them into a crop disaster. In some parts of Africa quelea are harvested at roosts as food and sold by the sackful, which is one of the few control efforts that recovers any of the cost.
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