Bulletin 328 - South Africa #5 - Part 2 - Waterfowl, Finfoot, Cormorants, Darter, Rails, Buffalo, Eland

Continued from part 1

The 24" African Finfoot (Podica senegalensis) is listed as a reclusive waterbird. It looks like a thin duck with a bright red bill. It is very uncommon in South Africa due to the lack of available rivers and streams, but is more common in Botswana . My guide said it is the #2 bird to see in South Africa, but he usually has to takes clients to Botswana to see it after they missed it in South Africa. Of course with my uncanny luck, we saw it! This is a male with the gray neck. The female is more brown with a white throat.

African Finfoot - male

The 16" Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata) looks like a coot with  white bill, but notice the 2 tiny red bumps above the shield. It is an easy ID as it is the only coot in South Africa.

Red-knobbed Coot

The 13" Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) is a resident throughout Eurasia and Africa. It looks like our Common Gallinule.

Common Moorhen

The 8" Black Crake (Amaurornis flavirostra) is one of only 2 rails in southern Africa. He is an easy ID as all black, with a yellow bill, and red eye and legs. We saw this bird several times on the trip.

Black Crake

There are 5 species of cormorants in southern Africa and I saw both of them in the eastern part of the country that were possible to see. The 36" White-breasted Cormorant (Phalacrocorax lucidus) is all black with a white throat and breast and yellow bill.

White-breasted Cormorant

The smaller (20") Reed Cormorant (Phalacrocorax africanus) is all black as an adult, but has a brown back with white underside as a juvenile. So this is a juvenile molting to adult plumage, as he is pale on the throat and breast.

Reed Cormorant

The " African Darter (Anhinga rufa) looks like a cormorant but has a much longer thinner neck. It is the same family as our anhinga.

African Darter

The sheer diversity of wildlife in Africa is stunning. I photographed 40 species of mammals in the 2 week trip. This is 50% of the number of mammals I photographed in the previous 12 years! The amazing thing to me was the number of large animals found. There are 34 species of antelope including the buffalo. These are in the bovidae family (cattle, goats and sheep) unlike our deer which are in the cervidae family. I photographed 21 members of this family. The young are called calves or lambs rather than fawns.

Here are the largest. The African Buffalo (Synercus caffer) can weigh up to 1 ton. It is one of the so-called Big 5 mammals that tourists want to see. The term Big 5 came about by hunters as the most dangerous animals to hunt on foot. Apparently the buffalo is the most dangerous and kills more hunters that the others. It is not an endangered species. We saw many of them.

African Buffalo

The Common Eland (Taurotragus oryx) is the largest African antelope, weighing in at up to 2100 pounds. It is grayish in color and has a dewlap on the neck. The horns are straight. I only saw 2 of them on the last morning.

Common Eland

I have put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 68 of the 165 species of  ducks and geese

I have photos of 16 of the 138 species of rails, coots, moorhens

I have photos of 8 of the 41 species of cormorants

I have photos of 2 of the 4 species of anhingas and darters

I have photos of 23 of the 147 species of cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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