Ethiopia

Whitewinged Flufftail Note the highly characteristic seven, white, inner primaries.

"Apparently restricted to a few high-altitude marshes, with a small population and highly specific habitat requirements. This poorly known species has a highly fragmented distribution and is severely threatened by continued habitat destruction, especially from commercial afforestation, damming, draining and overgrazing, qualifying it as critically Endangered." The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, 2000.

This species is an endemic resident to Africa and is only known to occur in high altitude wetlands of South Africa and Ethiopia. (there are isolated records from Zambia and Zimbabwe.) It is speculated that the bird migrates between these two countries, arriving at suitable habitat within South Africa in summer. However, this has not been proved.

We are aware that the WWF has very specific habitat requirements regarding altitude, grass type, water level and temperature but these have not yet been fully established. It is still not even known yet whether WWFs breed in South Africa.

	White-winged Flufftail chick found at Weserbi.
	White-winged Flufftail in flight over Weserbi marsh.
	Local assistant in typical WWF habitat This photo shows one of Dr Taylor’s assistants (from the Ethiopian Wildlife Natural History Society ) in typical breeding habitat at Berga during his 1999 visit.
	Success!! The first ever recorded nest.
	Three WWF eggs These three eggs are part of a clutch of 6 from the Genet nest.