Bulletin 373 - Uganda #17 - Owl, Cuckoos, Pratincoles

After the week in the Capetown area, the guide Casper Badenhorst, and I flew to Uganda and met a local guide. We started at Entebbe Airport on the southeast corner of Uganda and made a diagonal trip to Murchison Falls NP in the northwest corner. From there, we proceeded south through a chain of nature preserves and parks to the southwest corner at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We finished along the southern border back to the airport.

Unfortunately we did not do any night birding in Uganda because mostly we were exhausted from birding and driving long distances. But we did get one owl at dawn after a rainstorm overnight. And what an amazing owl it was. The 26" Verreaux's Eagle Owl (Bubo lacteus) is a grayish owl with dark eyes and pink eyelids! The pink eyelids are usually only seen if the owl has his eyes closed. But because of the rain all night, his feathers were matted down and the eyelids are plainly visible with his eyes open. This was the one owl I hoped to see on the trip as I missed it in the previous Africa trip. He is often seen on night drives on safari and people always remember seeing the "owl with the pink eyelids". It is the largest African owl and the only owl species in the world with pink eyelids.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

Here he is watching us.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

We saw a number of cuckoo species. The 16" Levaillant's Cuckoo (Clamator levaillantii) is  a black cuckoo with white underparts and streaking on the breast. It has a crest.

Levaillant's Cuckoo

The 12" Red-chested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) is dark gray above and has stripes across the underside except for the red chest.

Red-chested Cuckoo

The stunning 9" African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) has an iridescent emerald green head, breast, body and wings. The belly is bright yellow.

African Emerald Cuckoo

The 13" Blue Malkoha (Ceuthmochares aereus) is a gray bird with some bl;ue on the wings and tail. But the bright yellow bill and bare blue skin around the eye are the easy ID marks.

Blue Malkoha

The 18" Blue-headed Coucal (Centropus monachus) is a beautiful showy bird with rufous wings, blue head and nape and a white breast. 

Blue-headed Coucal

The 16" White-browed Coucal (Centropus superciliosus) has reddish wings, a black crown, and a wide white stripe over the eye.

White-browed Coucal

Pratincoles are closely related to sandpipers. The 10" Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola) is a brown bird with a buffy throat surrounded by a thin black line.

Collared Pratincole

The 7.5" Rock Pratincole (Glareola nuchalis) is a brown bird with a black head and a prominent white stripe around back of the neck. It has a red bill and legs. It lives on rocks in the middle of rivers. I photographed this bird on the boat trip below Murchison Falls

Rock Pratincole

I just read an amazing nature book "World of Wonders" in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments. The author is Aimee Nezhukumatathil. She is a poet but a lover of all nature. The book is a compilation of many essays she had written over the past decade about various species in all nature - from dragon fruit and corpse flower to octopus and flamingo. I even learned a new interesting fact about Monarch Butterflies.

One amusing essay was a time she took her 2 young boys on a Christmas Bird Count and their comments as they were deep in the woods.

Barnes and Noble selected it as the book of the year 2020. It is so beautifully written as she is a poet. It is just delightful. I am sure you will love to read it.

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

I have photos of 33 of the 216 species of owls

I have photos of 23 of the 147 species of  cuckoos

I have photos of 3 of the 17 species of courses and pratincoles

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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

Bulletin 372 - Uganda #16 - Old World Flycatchers - Part 1

After the week in the Capetown area, the guide Casper Badenhorst, and I flew to Uganda and met a local guide. We started at Entebbe Airport on the southeast corner of Uganda and made a diagonal trip to Murchison Falls NP in the northwest corner. From there, we proceeded south through a chain of nature preserves and parks to the southwest corner at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We finished along the southern border back to the airport.

This is a very large family (331 species) of small songbirds only 2 of which show up regularly in Alaska. Many of them are beautiful! Because of the number, of species, many will be found on any trip in Eurasia or Africa. They have many names flycatchers, chats, robins, wheatears, and many others.

The 7" Northern Black Flycatcher (Melaenornis edoliodes) is completely black.

Northern Black Flycatcher

The 7" male Sooty Chat (Myrmecocichla nigra) is black with a prominent white wing bar.

Sooty Chat - male

The 5" male African Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) has a black head, wings and back and white underparts except for a rusty breast.

African Stonechat - male

His cousin is the 5" male Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra). He is mostly buffy and brown, but with a black and white face. It is a winter migrant to Africa.

Whinchat - male

The 5" Cassin's Flycatcher (Muscicapa cassini) is gray above and lighter below with black wings. He is found along forest streams from 2200 to 5200' elevation. He perches on low branches or on rocks in the stream like this one. It is listed as uncommon.

Cassin's Flycatcher

His cousin is the 5" Swamp Flycatcher (Muscicapa aquatica). He is brown above and white below with a brown breast band.

Swamp Flycatcher

A species name I had not seen before was alethe. These are secretive thrush like forest birds. They are usually solitary and and follow ant swarms to feed. In fact they were in the thrush family until 2010.

The 7" Fire-crested Alethe (Alethe castanea) is brown above, with a gray face and underparts. There is a central orange median strip on the top of his head. They say it is not usually seen in the field. This is another bird named for an invisible field mark.

Fire-crested Alethe

The 6" Red-throated Alethe (Chamaetylas poliophrys) was a lucky find as we had ants moving across a mountain road and he popped in and out of the underbrush, as we waited for him. He has a brown back and wings with gray head and underparts. The red throat is distinct on this species.

Red-throated Alethe

A beautiful bird was the monotypic genus 7" Silverbird (Empidornis semipartitus). It is silvery gray above and rufous below. An easy ID if you know the bird.

Silverbird

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

I have photos of 52 of the 331 species of Old World Flycatchers


Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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