Where the Grass Breathes: Fülleborn’s Longclaw in Upemba National Park

Communication
3 hours ago
2 min read

On the high, wind-brushed grasslands of south-central Africa, a flash of yellow rises from the tussocks and settles again as if the land itself had blinked. This is Fülleborn’s Longclaw (Macronyx fuellebornii), a bird made for altitude and open space, where damp soils and rolling grasses shape both life and color. Stocky and ground-bound, it carries a confidence that comes from belonging exactly where it stands, its vibrant yellow throat cut cleanly by a bold black necklace, its mottled brown back dissolving into the grass the moment it stops moving.

Watching a Fülleborn’s Longclaw is to watch a specialist at work. It walks rather than hops, tail pumping rhythmically as it flushes insects from the grass, its unusually long hind claw acting like a stabilizer on uneven, waterlogged ground. Grasshoppers, beetles, termites, spiders, few escape its steady patrols. During the rains, it nests low and discreetly, shaping a small cup at the base of a grass tussock. These nests, easy to overlook, quietly add structure to the ground layer, supporting the fine-scale life that keeps grasslands functioning as living systems.

What makes this species particularly intriguing is how closely it mirrors the Yellow-throated Longclaw, its lowland cousin. At first glance they seem interchangeable, but Fülleborn’s Longclaw tells a subtler story: a cleaner, unstreaked breast beneath the black band, a heavier chest, and an insistence on higher ground. It is a bird of uplands, rarely dropping below 1,000 meters, tracing a narrow corridor across the Ufipa Plateau, parts of Zambia and Angola, and into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This quiet distinction matters, because it ties the species to a very specific kind of landscape.

In places like Upemba National Park, where high-altitude grasslands act as natural sponges that feed rivers and wetlands downstream, the presence of Fülleborn’s Longclaw is more than a pleasant sighting. It is a sign that these grasslands are still breathing; holding water, supporting insects, and resisting degradation. Though currently listed as Least Concern, the bird’s dependence on intact, damp grasslands makes it vulnerable to overgrazing and land conversion. Protecting Upemba’s upland grasslands therefore means protecting the longclaw’s quiet stride through the tussocks, and with it, the hidden processes that keep the landscape resilient. For #BirdyTuesday, Fülleborn’s Longclaw reminds us that some of conservation’s most important stories are written close to the ground, in places we might otherwise walk straight past.