Free Kori Bustard
by John McLain

No, this is not a plea to let some innocent prisoner with a weird name loose. This is an offer for free feathers from an exotic bird.

Kori Bustard is a large bird, the size of a big turkey, and in my eye it resembles a splendidly attired Road Runner. Indigenous to eastern and southern Africa, there are close to 70 in captivity in the United States.  Kori Bustard feathers have adorned British Salmon flies for over 150 years and are still much in demand for tying full-dress Salmon flies today. There has always been a limited supply of these feathers but the popularity of Salmon fly-tying in the 1980’s and '90’s caused the price of these feathers to go through the roof. My retirement gift from my union was 2 Kori feathers that cost $500. It is a nice feather to work with but that was a ridiculous sum for 2 feathers, even though they were quite large.

Things do change though, sometimes even for the better.

 The zoos that had supplied these feathers in recent years had a national policy change. The many zoos adopted a rule forbidding the sale of their animals or parts thereof. Thus, no more Kori Bustard feathers unless we somehow started having them legally imported from Africa.

I felt it would be a tragic waste to do that while the zoos were throwing away perfectly good, useable feathers that continually fall out of their captive birds. It took some begging and pleading and a few donations to show that, if they were to send me their garbage (molted feathers), I would distribute them free to fly-tiers in the United States, and the recipients would, in turn, voluntarily send a small donation to the program's sponsor, The Kori Bustard Species Survival Plan, for assistance in conserving the bird. The program seems to be working as we have now entered the second official year of the program and it is growing and possibly expanding on more than one front. I have received and distributed, for free, countless thousands of dollars worth (under the old prices) of Kori Bustard feathers over the last year. The seems to have gained momentum since its inception as originally only a few zoos agreed to participate.

As word spread throughout the Kori community that the program was working, more facilities stepped up and began saving feathers for us. I receive assortments of loose feathers fairly regularly (4 since the first of the year) ranging from a large envelope containing a good handful to cartons holding a bushel or more. Prior to distribution I de-louse, wash, sort and package all the feathers. I try and send an assortment of the various feathers useful to a fly tyer to anyone who wants them. There are no strings attached other than to send me the postage and I will send you feathers. I will explain the procedure in detail a little later; this give-away may be beneficial to you even though you don’t tie full-dress classic Atlantic Salmon flies.

Like most birds, the Kori has a myriad of feather types. Some feathers, such as tail and wing primaries and secondaries, are quite suitable for "marrying" into wings on Salmon flies but there are many others that offer the “fishing fly” tier an incredible array of speckled and mottled color, as well as some all white feathers that range from eagle-like marabou plumes that are a dream to wrap as Spey type hackle, through long-barbed, tan and brown vermiculated feathers that make beautiful herl bodies. I know Kori has many applications in dry, wet, nymph and streamer type flies. I guess one would only be limited by one's own imagination when it comes to using these feathers.

Maybe we can convince the editors to start a series of articles based on flies tied by you, the members, that demonstrate the various uses of Kori Bustard.

I operate a website; www.FeathersMc.com that deals with materials for classic Atlantic Salmon flies, but an entire section is devoted to Kori Bustard. If you would like more information about the bird, it’s feathers and the program, see: http://www.feathersmc.com/kori.php  Be sure to see the additional articles on the menu bar to the left of the page. 

I mentioned earlier that the program is possibly expanding. Throughout the year I communicate with a number of people in the zoological community, but primarily with bird curators. Fortunately for us they see the program as a beneficial conservation program that they, as curators, can participate in. Oddly enough they, as caretakers, spend most of their time tending to the birds' needs and can’t devote any meaningful time to conservation projects. One curator tells me his staff has a friendly competition for who can find the most feathers for us.

Some aviary curators feel this is a good way to do both, and the added benefit to fly-tiers is by receiving something of value not readily available before, not to mention the U.S. Post Office gets paid to send boxes of feathers and air. The amount of donations received hasn’t been staggering, nor was it meant to be. It’s just that every little bit helps and it shows them we are appreciative. Enough $10 or $20 donations, if a tier/recipient chooses to make one, will add up to something meaningful one day.

If you would like to tie a fly using some of the free feathers, it doesn’t need to be a fancy fly; it can be a nymph or even a midge pupa if you like. Send it to me and I will have it mounted into a shadow box display depicting the many different things we can do with our craft and these incredible feathers. Several of the contributing facilities have requested flies so they can display them near the birds telling their visitors of their unusual but effective conservation efforts. I have even been approached by an official with creating something similar for some of their other exotic species. What a perfect world we would live in if eventually we were able to receive free all unusual and rare feathers produced and naturally molted from the participating zoos' birds. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact me John@FeathersMc.com