Bulletin 338 - South Africa #15 - Part 1 - Doves, Woodpeckers, Rollers, Bee-eaters, others

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.

Pigeons and doves are a huge family (333 species). I photographed 10 new species on the trip. The 9" Laughing Dove (Spilopelia senegalensi) is a brownish dove with black and orange spotted breast and dark eye.

Laughing Dove

The 13" Red-eyed Dove (Streptopelia semitorquata) is pink with brownish wings and a black collar on the back of the neck and of course a red eye, and red facial skin.

Red-eyed Dove

The 10.5" Ring-necked Dove (Streptopelia capicola) is a grayish dove with a black collar.

Ring-necked Dove
AKA Cape Turtle Dove

The 11" Mourning Collared Dove (Streptopelia decipiens) is rufous below and also with a red eye and black collar, but no red facial skin.

Mourning Collared Dove

The 7.5" Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove (Turtur chalcospilos) is a brown dove with a gray head and 2 iridescent green wing patches.

Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove

The 8" male Tambourine Dove (Turtur tympanistria) is brown above and pure white below.

Tambourine Dove

The 10" Lemon Dove (Columba larvata) is a reddish-brown dove with gray wings and red eye.

Lemon Dove

The 13" Speckled Pigeon (Columba guinea) is gray with a streaked breast and brown wings with many white spots.

Speckled Pigeon

The 16" African Olive Pigeon (Columba arquatrix) seems to be inappropriately named unless he eats olives. It is purple with white spots and yellow eye ring, bill and feet.

African Olive Pigeon

The last is the 10.5" African Green Pigeon (Treron calvus) is mostly green with a white eye and bicolored bill.

African Green Pigeon

I photographed 4 woodpeckers for the trip and caught a glimpse of a 5th species. The 9" male Bennett's Woodpecker (Campethera bennettii) has a striped back and spotted underside with a red crown and red malar stripe.

Bennett's Woodpecker - male

Continue to Part 2.

Bulletin 338 - South Africa #15 - Part 2 - Doves, Woodpeckers, Rollers, Bee-eaters, others

Continued from Part 1

The 10" female Bearded Woodpecker (Dendropicos namaquus)  has a striped black and white head and yellow tail. The male has a red nape. Interestingly, the juveniles of both sexes have more red then the adult male. I have never heard of this in a woodpecker species before.

Bearded Woodpecker - female

The 6" female Cardinal Woodpecker (Dendropicos fuscescens) has a ladder back, black streaked breast and white face. The male would have a red patch on the nape of the neck.

Cardinal Woodpecker - female

The 7" male Olive Woodpecker (Dendropicos griseocephalus) has an olive green back, wings and tail, gray face and underparts and a red nape.

Olive Woodpecker

The rollers and bee-eaters are colorful birds closely related to kingfishers, but each in their own family. 

There are 27 bee-eater species and I saw 3 of them. The 10" European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is a multi-colored bird that breeds in Europe and winters in Africa. I had seen it in southern France in the 1990s so it was nice to get a photo.

European Bee-eater

The 9.5 " White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) is a spectacular bird with a white forehead and red and white throat. It is endemic to southern Africa.

White-fronted Bee-eater

Lastly is the 6.5" Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus)

Little Bee-eater

Rollers are an even smaller family with just 12 species and I also saw 3 of them on the trip. The 11.5" Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus) is cinnamon and purple with a bright yellow bill.

Broad-billed Roller

The 15" Purple Roller (Coracias naevius) is IDed by the purple breast streaked with white.

Purple Roller

The last is the amazing 12" Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) has a turquoise crown and violet breast. The long tail streames add another 3" to his length. This is the most photographed bird in South Africa.

Lilac-breasted Roller

There are 3 zebra species and the one I saw was Burchell's Zebra (Equus burchelli). Notice that the black stripes do not go all the way under the belly. Also, on the rump, some stripes are brown.

Burchell's Zebra

Continued on Part 3

Bulletin 338 - South Africa #15 - Part 3 - Doves, Woodpeckers, Rollers, Bee-eaters, others

Continued from Part 2


The Common Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) is a member of the swine family. It is named for those big lumps on his head. Look at the huge tusks! I would not want to tangle with this animal.

Common Warthog

While we were watching this group, one of them went over to a large rock and started to scratch his butt on the rock..kind of funny.

Common Warthog

The Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus) is a spotted lizard that is cute as a small one like this. It is popular in the pet trade. But it grows rapidly to a 6' monster that is very aggressive. Reading up on this, apparently there are established invasive populations in Florida because people could not handle them and released them into the wild.

Nile Monitor

Here is a huge adult that must have been 6' long.

 Nile Monitor

The 9" male Southern Tree Agama (Acanthocercus atricollis) is a beautiful blue-headed 

lizard.

Southern Tree Agama

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

I have photos of 36 of the 336 species of  doves

I have photos of 52 of the 234 species of woodpeckers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 337 - South Africa #14 - Part 1 - Cisticolas, Finches,

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.

The cisticolas are a family of small birds mostly in Africa. Some are plain LBJs but others are colorful. The LBJs are best Ided by voice. The 3.75" Wing-snapping Cisticola (Cisticola ayresii) has a rufous crown, and the male has the dark mustache. The tail is very short.

Wing-snapping Cisticola

The 4" Zitting Cisticola (Cisticola juncidis) had black streaked wings and on crown.

Zitting Cisticola

The 5.5" Lazy Cisticola (Cisticola aberrans) has a rufous cap, plain back and longer tail.

Lazy Cisticola

The 6" Rattling Cisticola (Cisticola chiniana) has a streaked back and rufous on the head and wings.

Rattling Cisticola

The 6" Croaking Cisticola (Cisticola natalensis) is the largest cisticola and has dark wings and crown and a black bill.

Croaking Cisticola

The last named cisticola was the easiest for a beginner there like me to ID after I saw one. The 5" Levaillant's Cisticola (Cisticola tinniens) has rufous wings and crown and a black streaked back.

Levaillant's Cisticola

The 4.5" Neddicky (Cisticola fulvicapilla) is the same genus. I do not know where that peculiar name, neddicky, comes from. 

Neddicky

Prinias are members of this family with long tails, often cocked up. The 5" Tawny-flanked Prinia (Prinia subflava) has a wide white line above the eye.

Tawny-flanked Prinia

The 6" Drakensberg Prinia (Prinia hypoxantha) is a drab prinia in the mountains, but he does have a streaked breast.

Drakensberg Prinia

The 4" Burnt-necked Eremomla (Eremomela usticollis) is gray above, beige below and a rusty breast band.

Burnt-necked Eremomla

Continue to Part 2

Bulletin 337 - South Africa #14 - Part 2 - Cisticolas, Finches, mammals

Continued from Part 1

Apalises are another group in the cisticola family. The 5" Rudd's Apalis (Apalis ruddi) has a gray head, olive back and wings and a black breast band and black eye.

Rudd's Apalis

The 5" Bar-throated Apalis (Apalis thoracica) is similar, but he has a white eye.

Bar-throated Apalis

The 5" Yellow-breasted Apalis (Apalis flavida) is similar again, but has a yellow breast and red eye to distinguish it.

Yellow-breasted Apalis

The last of this family is the 5" Green-backed Camaroptera (Camaroptera brachyura). He is olive above, gray below with a red eye.

Green-backed Camaroptera

There were 4 finches on the trip. The 4" Yellow-fronted Canary (Crithagra mozambica) is green backed, yellow below and yellow on the face.

Yellow-fronted Canary

The 5" Forest Canary (Crithagra scotops) is a dark streaked canary with a black face.

Forest Canary

Also in the sane genus is the 6" Streaky-headed Seedeater (Crithagra gularis). it is a plain brown finch with a cream line above the eye.

Streaky-headed Seedeater

The 5"male Cape Canary (Serinus canicollis) is a gray bird with yellow breast and yellow on the wings and tail.

Cape Canary - male

The 4" Long-billed Crombec (Sylvietta rufescens) belongs to a small family (18 species) called African warblers. It is gray above with a rufous belly. It appears to not have any tail.

Long-billed Crombec

The African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) is of course the largest land mammal with males weight up to 6.5 tons.

African Elephant

Continue to part 3