Bulletin 330 - South Africa #7 - Part 1 - Ground Birds, Thick-knees, Turacos, antelope

I had an amazing 2 week trip to South Africa and scored almost 280 new species of birds as well as fantastic mammals and a few reptiles. My guide Casper Badenhorst was outstanding. You can see his web site here. He can be contacted through the web site or if you want his email it is info@birdingandwildlifesafaris.com. I recommend him highly as he showed me so many rare birds and animals. I will use him again when I go to Southern Africa.

As usual my birding luck was 100% and we saw almost every thing expected to be found and many that were not expected!

The huge 6' Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus) needs no introduction. It is the largest bird in the world alive today (although some extinct species were much bigger). It can weigh up to 175 pounds and cannot fly. The male has a black body.

Common Ostrich - male

The female has a brown body.

Common Ostrich - female

Bustards and Korhaans are tall ground-dwelling birds. The 55" Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) is another target bird in Africa. It weighs up to 45 pounds and is the largest bird in the world capable of flying.

Kori Bustard

The male, to display, inflates his throat and elevates his tail. Here is a male displaying.

Kori Bustard - male displaying

The 24" Black-bellied Bustard (Lissotis melanogaster) is brown with a black belly.

Black-bellied Bustard

Korhaans are in the same family and smaller than bustards. The 20" Red-crested Korhaan (Lophoris ruficrista) is similar in coloration to the above bird, but the male has red crest feathers he elevates in display.

Red-crested Korhaan

The 20" Northern Black Korhaan (Afrotis afraoides) has a black neck and head.

Northern Black Korhaan

The guineafowl are an endemic African family of 6 species. I saw both of the species in South Africa. The 23" Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) is well known as this is the domesticated bird kept by many people in USA and elsewhere.

Helmeted Guineafowl

The 20" Crested Guineafowl (Guttera pucherani) has a similar colored body, but the bare skin on the head is gray and it has a curly topknot.

Crested Guineafowl

The pheasant family has over 180 species and includes everything from huge peacocks to small grouse and francolins. We saw 4 species on the trip. The 15" Swainson's Spurfowl (Pternistis swainsonii) is all brown with bare red facial skin.

Swainson's Spurfowl

The 15" Natal Spurfowl (Pternistis natalensis) has a brown back and wings and black and white rest of body. There is no bare facial skin. At one picnic area where we stopped to have our breakfast of muffins and coffee, there were several of these birds. I was able to hand feed them some of my muffin and one jumped onto my forearm!. A nice treat.

Natal Spurfowl

Continued on part 2