Red-billed Quelea

Quelea quelea

Safety in numbers! The most abundant wild bird on Earth, good luck losing this one.

Population: No standing IUCN population count (BirdLife lists it as "unknown"); described as possibly the most abundant wild bird on Earth, with post-breeding flocks sometimes estimated at up to 1.5 billion individuals
Habitat: Semi-arid tropical/subtropical grassland and savanna — pastureland, arable land, dry savanna, subtropical/tropical dry shrubland, and the Sahel/dry thornbush country; avoids forest, desert, and high-altitude areas; stays within roughly 30 km of water
Fun fact: Nicknamed "Africa's feathered locust," the red-billed quelea forms flocks of millions to over a billion birds that can strip a farmer's grain field bare within minutes, making it the world's most numerous wild bird and one of Africa's most destructive agricultural pests.
Range: Sub-Saharan Africa, resident in 39 countries/territories from West Africa (Senegal) across to East Africa/Horn of Africa and south to Southern Africa (Extent of Occurrence ~25,800,000 km²); three recognized subspecies; nomadic/irruptive rather than truly migratory, tracking rainfall and seed availability
Diet: Primarily grass seeds (especially annual grasses); switches heavily to cereal grain crops (sorghum, millet, wheat, rice) when wild seed is scarce, causing major agricultural damage; nestlings fed largely on insects (grasshoppers, ants, beetles, caterpillars, termites), with breeding adults also taking snails/grit for eggshell calcium
Size: 0.12 m
Lifespan: 3 years

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