Biodiversity and the New Year in Ethiopia

Berihun Gebremedhin
Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, P.O. Box 30726, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Email.: berihungm@yahoo.com

Ethiopia has just celebrated its New Year and the Millennium. This great nation has a lot to offer the world. Much of the fascination of Ethiopia lies in its historical roots. The nation has its own unique calendar different from the rest of the world and also has its own alphabet. The New Year comes every September. New Year in Ethiopia follows the end of the main rainy season, which starts in June and continues till the end of August, sometimes till mid-September. This month, being brighter, greener and warmer than the other months, is viewed as a sign of bright hope by many native Ethiopians.  

Most of the landscape in the highlands and lowlands will remain blanketed with green vegetation; flowers bloom everywhere decorating the landscape with their color and sweet scent. The watercourses are refilled with continuous flowing streams, creeks and rivers. Yellow-colored flowering herbs (Adey Abeba (Amharic), Abaabo Masqalaa (Oromipha), and Gelgele “Mesqel” (Tigrigna) - the so called “Mesqel” Daisy), which belongs to the Biden family, are the most prominent flowers of the season. This herb is well known for its contribution to the landscape. The two holidays, the New Year and “Mesqel” are celebrated during this month, and are enriched by these flowers.

However, not only the flowers and other green vegetation convey a sense of beauty to the scenery. There are also a number of birds that migrate thousands of kilometres from their breeding sites in Europe to their wintering sites in Ethiopia.  Many ordinary people take note of the departure and return of these birds during the change in seasons. However, not all the migrant birds coming for wintering attract the attention of local people.  In addition to these visitors, though, there are quite large numbers of local breeding birds that regularly visit during the Ethiopian New Year. Of these, the most famous birds are what are called “Yemeskel Wof” in Amharic. Actually, these birds are not migrants. They are locally common birds that change into their breeding plumage during this time of year to attract females. For non-scientists or amateur bird watchers, the name Yemesqel Wof might seem to refer to a single species, but it is an umbrella term covering bishops, indigo-birds, whydah and widowbirds. There are no published ethno-ornithological classification studies conducted on these birds (or, indeed, any other birds of Ethiopia) so far. 
 
It seems that the naming of this group is associated with the appearance of the birds in Mesqel - the Holiday. From the distribution and altitudinal range of the bishops, indigo-birds, whydahs and widowbirds it seems that the Mesqel Wof may comprise about 10 different species. But not all species are evenly distributed over the whole country. Some are found in the northern and central part of Ethiopia, while others are known to occupy habitats in the southern and southwestern parts.

Interestingly, some members of this group show unusual behaviors in their life style.   For instance, the indigo-birds and whydahs are known to be obligate brood parasitic finches which parasitize other Estrildid finches. Brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and do not provide any parental care for their own offspring. As obligate parasites, indigo-birds follow this life-style and have completely lost their ability to construct their own nests and incubate eggs. In this case, the young are raised entirely by the foster parents. Some of the Indigo Birds have specific hosts for nestling their eggs. That means by looking at a given host finch, it might be possible to identify the indigo- bird that parasitizes on it. The indigo-birds can be distinguished by their bills and leg color. For example, the village indigo-bird which is found in Ethiopia has a whitish bill and orange-red legs. This Indigo-bird is known to parasitize the red-billed fire finch.

The whydahs are mostly brood parasites of waxbills and pytilias. The pin-tailed whydah, straw-tailed whydah and steel-Blue whydah are birds that represent the whydah (Viduadae) ‘family’ in Ethiopia.  The males of the whydah are easily identified by their long tails; while the females, non-breeding males and juveniles resemble indigo-birds. They all have specialized hosts for brood parasitism. Various waxbills and warblers are known to host the pin-tailed whydah, and the purple grenadier hosts straw-tailed whydah; the steel-blue whydah parasitizes black-faced and black-cheeked waxbills. The eastern paradise whydah, which frequents woodland and acacia savanna, is another whydah species. It is common, but moves locally to other regions. This species is identified by having a broad and elongated tail and darker nape patch and breast.  Like other whydah it has the characteristic of brood parasitism and it parasitizes the green-winged pytilia.

The Bishops and Widowbirds are other groups of birds which are also categorized as “Yemesqel Wof”. These groups are generally known to be sexually dimorphic sparrow-like seed-eaters related to weavers. They frequently form mixed species flocks with other seed eaters, outside of the breeding seasons. Males will have predominantly black plumage with red, yellow or white plumage patterns during breeding time.

Bishops are smaller in size than widowbirds, and have a habit of fluffing their plumage when displaying. Yellow bishop and yellow-crowned bishop are two species regularly seen in Ethiopia. Both of these species are found in habitats where there are breeding and feeding sites. Their main habitats are damp grassy areas and heath lands, flooded grasslands, and marshes - though the yellow bishop seems to prefer the drier areas. Like other members of the “Yemesqel Wof” these two bishops are locally common.

Male Widowbirds are characterized by their longer tails and colored shoulder patches; they are larger than females.  Female Widowbirds are hard to identify and could be confused with other small seed-eaters, including non-breeding Quileas, Whydah and weavers. Non-breeding male Widowbirds retain distinctive shoulder patches. Juveniles generally are buffer than females. There are four species of widowbird found in Ethiopia. These include the yellow-mantled widowbird, red-collared widowbird, fan-tailed widowbird, and white-winged widowbird. These bird species frequent habitats, such as damp grassland and marshy areas, rank grassland fields, reed-bed, stands of sugar cane, tall grass in savanna, marsh edges and long vegetation. Usually they are all locally common.

Responsible for this page: Berihun G/Medhin, 2007

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