It is said that if you tamper with a Lightning Birds' nest (of African Tribal legend), the bird will take revenge by sitting on the roof of your hut and calling down lightning. If you hit the bird without killing it, it is you who will die or at least lose your hair. If the bird hovers over your village, something evil is about to befall you. At the scene of the lightning strike, that is where you'll find the bird or its eggs. The eggs are believed to contain special magic properties. Powers associated with the bird include possessing body parts that are valuable to traditional medicine. Tribal witch doctors are looked to for help in dealing with the bird. Supposedly, they can use an extract that comes from the bird's flesh as a method of catching thieves. The Lighting Bird is in fact a real bird known throughout the birding world as the Hamerkop. It is found south of the Sahara, Madagascar and coastal southwest Arabia in all wetland habitats. It eats mostly amphibians but will also eats fish, shrimp, insects and small rodents when available. The strangest aspect of Hamerkop behavior is the huge nest, sometimes more than 1.5 m across, comprising perhaps 10,000 sticks and strong enough to support a man's weight. The birds decorate the outside with any bright-colored objects they can find. When possible, they build the nest in the fork of a tree, often over water, but if necessary they build on a bank, a cliff, a human-built wall or dam, or on the ground. A pair starts by making a platform of sticks held together with mud, then builds walls and a domed roof. A mud-plastered entrance 13 to 18 cm wide in the bottom leads through a tunnel up to 60 cm long to a nesting chamber big enough for the parents and young. These birds are compulsive nest builders, constructing 3 to 5 nests per year whether they are breeding or not. At the finished nest, a pair gives displays similar to those of the group ceremonies and mates, often on top of the nest. The Hamerkop's behavior is unlike other birds'. One unusual feature is that up to ten birds join in "ceremonies" in which they run circles around each other, all calling loudly, raising their crests, fluttering their wings. Another is "false mounting", in which one bird stands on top of another and appears to mount it, but they may not be mates and do not copulate. Models: D3, V3, African Tribal Village, african and Kente Clothing (DAZ), Lighting Bird (Me/SBRM Birds of Legend)