Podica senegalensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The African finfoot or Peter's finfoot (Podica senegalensis) is an aquatic bird from the family Heliornithidae (the finfoots and sungrebe). The species lives in the rivers and lakes of western, central, and southern Africa.
The African finfoot is an underwater specialist with a long neck, a striking sharp beak, and bright red, lobed feet. The plumage varies by race, generally pale underneath and darker on top. The males are usually darker than the females.
The African finfoot can be found in a range of habitats across Africa, in areas where there are rivers, streams, and lakes with good cover on the banks. This range includes forest, wooded savannah, flooded forest, and even mangrove swamps.
The finfoot feeds on aquatic invertebrates, including both adults and larval mayflies, dragonflies, crustaceans, also snails, fish and amphibians. They are thought to be highly opportunistic and take some of their prey directly off the waters surface. They are adept out of water and will forage on the banks as well, unlike the grebes, which they resemble but are not related to.
Finfoots are usually seen singly or in pairs. They are very secretive. Even... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 4 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an African Finfoot sighting in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, based on 36 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 266th most-seen of the 351 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Finfoot in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and September–April, the lowest months. Those are among iSimangaliso Wetland Park's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Finfoot sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate African Finfoot sightings, iSimangaliso Wetland Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 50%), Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Kafue National Park (Zambia, about 20%).
Same order: Gruiformes
The closest relatives of the African Finfoot that you can see in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (order Gruiformes, Cranes, Rails, and Allies) are Black Crake (about 20%), Western Swamphen (about 10%) and Common Moorhen (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Finfoot is recorded against all the birds logged in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (36 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
