Bird of the Week – Week 88 – Chinspot batis
The beautiful little Chinspot batis is a fairly common bird, found throughout large parts of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. In the southern Africa region it is found in the wetter west and...
Category: Birding
Bird of the Week – Week 87 – African openbill
The side view of the African openbill presents an unusual picture as its large bill appears badly constructed and doesn’t close in the fashion of other birds. There is a clear gap of approximately...
The Bird of the Week – Week 86 – Brubru
The Brubru is a fairly unobtrusive shrike that is quite difficult to see clearly as it hops about in the thickly leaved tree canopies that it favours. It is found through most of sub-Saharan...
Bird of the Week – Week 85 – Helmeted guineafowl
One of the most common of the larger, easily recognized birds often seen along the quieter roads in southern Africa is the Helmeted guineafowl. They gather in fairly large flocks and are somewhat reluctant...
Bird of the Week – Week 84 – Familiar chat
The Afrikaans name for the Familiar chat is “Gewone spekvreter” which means “Common fat-eater“, a strange name that it apparently earned during the 1800’s when the Voortrekkers were migrating northwards from the Cape of...
Bird of the Week – Week 83 – Rock kestrel
Rock kestrel used to be considered a sub-species of the Common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), but on the basis of recent genetic findings it is now considered to be a separate species. As the classification...
Bird of the Week – Week 82 – Ruppell’s korhaan
The Ruppell’s korhaan, previously known as the Ruppell’s bustard, is near endemic to the southern African region where it is limited in distribution to the dry, sandy and gravel plains of the Namib Desert...
Bird of the Week – Week 81 – Burchell’s coucal
The Burchell’s coucal is also commonly referred to as “The Rainbird” and has a well developed reputation in southern African for being able to predict impending rain. This association with rain probably arises because...
Bird of the Week – Week 80 – Little bee-eater
The bee-eaters are amongst the most colourful birds in the southern African region, and the smallest of them all, the aptly named Little bee-eater, is no exception. A slenderly built bird with a length...
Bird of the Week – Week 79 – Squacco heron
The Squacco heron is fairly common along the shorelines of freshwater dams and wetlands that have dense vegetation throughout the southern African region, with the exception of the very dry areas of the Namib...
Bird of the Week – Week 78 – Mallard
The Mallard (perhaps together with the Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) is thought to be the ancestor of all domestic ducks. It is a particularly striking bird, especially the males which have a metallic-green head...
Bird of the Week – Week 77 – Cape bunting
The Cape bunting is a fairly small bird, just 16 cm in length, and is often to be seen foraging on the rocky and fairly open ground along quieter roadsides. It is a near...
Bird of the Week – Week 76 – Yellow-bellied eremomela
The Yellow-bellied eremomela is found quite widely through the southern African region, and, indeed, through large parts of Africa northward to Sudan, although it is not found in the forests of the central and...
Bird of the Week – Week 75 – Cape cormorant
If you sit somewhere along the Namibian west coast, particularly in the vicinity of Swakopmund, and look out over the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise or sunset you are bound to see long chains of...
Oxpeckers – Heroes or villains?
It seems as though the jury is still out on whether the oxpecker is a hero or a villain. It is true that the oxpecker scavenges ticks off a wide variety of the larger...
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