Bird of the week – Week 74 : White-browed scrub-robin
The White-browed scrub-robin, with a length of around 15 cm, is much the same size as the other scrub-robins and out in the field it is often necessary to look at the birds quite...
Category: Birding
Bird of the Week – Week 73 – Namaqua dove
Found throughout most of Africa, the Namaqua dove is the smallest dove in the region and the only one with a long tail. The sexes are similar in size, with a length of about...
Bird of the Week – Week 72 – Giant kingfisher
The Giant kingfisher is, as one would expect from its name, the largest of all the kingfishers found in the southern African region. They have a length of approximately 44 cm, and the sexes...
Bird of the Week – Week 71 – Short-toed rock-thrush
The Short-toed rock-thrush is a near endemic to the southern African region, with its range outside of the region being limited to southern Angola. Its preferred habitat within this range is the arid western...
Bird of the Week – Week 70 – Magpie shrike
Found in the more northerly parts of the southern African region, as well as further north into Kenya and Tanzania, the Magpie shrike is a distinctive bird that is quite hard to miss. It...
Bird of the Week – Week 69 – Double-banded sandgrouse
We most often see the Double-banded sandgrouse while driving along the sandy roads and tracks of central and northern Namibia, as they seem to favour the edges of the road as areas along which...
Bird of the week – Week 68 – Grey go-away bird
One of the common sounds to be heard in the dry savanna woodlands of southern Africa is a loud nasal “quare“, which, with a little stretch of the aural imagination may be interpreted as...
From nowhere – a heronry
About 150 km west of Windhoek in Namibia, the Black Nossob River runs through the farm “Vendetta” on its way to join up with the White Nossob before winding its way into the Kalahari...
Bird of the week – Week 67 – Yellow-breasted apalis
An attractive little bird that is found in the wetter parts of southern Africa, and further north as far as Ethiopia, is the Yellow-breasted apalis. Although fairly common within the southern part of its...
Bird of the week – Week 66 : Black-headed heron
Large grey-coloured herons are a common sight at many dams, river estuaries, lagoons and other bodies of water within southern Africa and throughout most of Africa south of the Sahara. Unmistakable with their long...
Cape cobra raiding a Sociable weavers nest
The huge nests of the Sociable weaver (Philetairus socius) are quite common throughout the drier woodland and savanna of Namibia, clinging to trees and pylons like so many haystacks. Any literature on these colonially...
Bird of the week – Week 65: Cape turtle dove
One of the most common of the collared (or ring-necked) doves found in the southern African region is the Cape turtle-dove and its distinctive call can be heard almost throughout the region. It is...
Bird of the week – Week 64 : Lark-like bunting
The Lark-like bunting is the least colourful of the buntings, being a rather nondescript buff colour with darker brown wings and tail and with a faint cinnamon tint to its under parts. As implied...
Sealed for safety – a Southern yellow-billed hornbill’s nest
We were relaxing at our campsite at Palmwag, in the Damaraland area of Namibia, when we noticed a lone Southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) energetically flitting to-and-fro across the dry river bed that fronted...
Bird of the week – Week 62: Yellow-billed stork
Yellow-billed storks are not normally regarded as gregarious birds, and usually tend to solitude, being found singly or in pairs at the edges of dams, rivers and other areas of shallow marshy water. However,...
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