The White-throated canary is locally common within the shrubland and gardens in the drier eastern parts of the southern African region, to which it is a “near-endemic” (its range includes only a small part...
A common sight in trees throughout the arid and semi-arid regions of southern Africa are untidy balls of dry straw, often several clustered in close proximity to each other and seeming to favour the...
During July and early August a large brown bird appears in the skies over southern Africa, preferring the wetter parts of the region and avoiding only the dry Kalahari and Namib Deserts. Visiting southern...
One of the important gods in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt was Thoth, often depicted as having the head of a Sacred ibis (he is sometimes depicted as having the head of a baboon,...
Lapwing. Now there is a rather strange word, but what does it mean? Well, don’t try researching this on the Internet unless you have quite a bit of time to spare, and are prepared...
We were visiting a series of small pans near the Zambezi River to the east of Katima Mulilo in northern Namibia when we came upon a wooden moroko pulled up on the bank of...
Walking through the veld anywhere in Namibia or in the semi-arid western parts of South Africa it is not unusual to be attracted to a melodious and bubbling song issuing from the depths of...
Carmine is the name of the red dye that was originally obtained from the cochineal beetle; described as the colour of tomatoes or rubies. Or blood. The name of a food dye used to...
The Yellow-bellied greenbul is an attractive little bird that can sometimes become quite friendly and used to the presence of people; several times we have been visited by these birds while camping in northern...
The four francolins of the genus Scleroptila, found mainly in the grassland areas of southern Africa, are a confusingly similar group, with their white throats and brown speckled plumage. There are differences, however, and...
The call of the Bokmakierie is a delight to hear. The paired birds almost invariably call in duet and have quite an extensive repertoire, but often containing a bok, bok, bok followed by a...
Southern Africa is blessed with a great variety of doves and pigeons; around fourteen different species are resident here. Some are common and widespread throughout the region, others not. One of those that is...
In Afrikaans it has the delightful name of “Grootlangtoon” which can be translated as “Big long toe”. This is wonderfully descriptive of a bird that has toes so long that they trail behind the...
A familiar sound along many of the waterways of southern Africa is the sustained “tsip weet-weet” of the African pied wagtail, a song that is easily recognized once initially identified. As is the bird...
When the ruins of Great Zimbabwe were discovered by the first European adventurers in the early 16th century, and more fully investigated in the 19th century, one of the intriguing discoveries made amongst the...
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