Bulletin 348 - South Africa 2020 #2 - new family and Cape songbirds

I was enthralled with my first visit to Africa in November 2018 and so I scheduled another trip with the same guide Casper Badenhorst. As we had done the eastern part of the country from Durban to Kruger NP, we went to the Capetown area and the famous fynbos habitat.

You will see many of theses birds in this bulletin are named for the area.

There was one new family of passerines on the trip as well. The rockjumpers have just 2 species and one is in the western cape area. 

The 9" Cape Rockjumper (Chaetops frenatus) is endemic to the Cape fynbos area. It likes boulder strewn slopes with scrubby low vegetation. The pair will start at the bottom of the hill and work their way to the top and then fly down again. We were lucky to get a pair at the bottom so were able to walk up ahead of them and let them move towards us. The male is unmistakable with his black head and 2 white stripes and dark rufous body.

Cape Rockjumper - male

The female is grayish and duller overall. She came within 5 feet of where I was standing.

Cape Rockjumper - female

The 5" male Cape Batis (Batis capensis) is a striking plump black and white bird with rufous flanks.

Cape Batis - male

The 8" Cape Bulbul (Pycnonotus capensis) is a  dark brown bird with typical yellow vent of the bulbuls. He has a large white eye ring.

Cape Bulbul

The 6" Cape Bunting (Emberiza capensis) is a sparrow like bird with striped head, brown wings and light underside.

Cape Bunting

Next is the the 7" Cape Grassbird (Sphenoeacus afer). The rufous head, streaked body and long tail are an easy ID if you are lucky enough to see this skulker.

Cape Grassbird

The 6" male Cape Sparrow (Passer melanurus) is a gray bodied bird with black  and white head.

Cape Sparrow

The male Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer) is a brown bird with curved bill and a very long tail. It is the signature bird for the fynbos area as it drinks nectar form protea flowers and moves around as flowers bloom at different times in the year. We saw it many times.

Cape Sugarbird

The 8" Cape Wagtail (Motacilla capensis) is a rather dull wagtail as it is mostly gray and white rather than black and white.

Cape Wagtail

Lastly is the 7" Cape Weaver (Ploceus capensis). This is a dull yellow female. The male would be brighter with a black face.

Cape Weaver - female

These are just a few of the birds named 'Cape something' but these are the only members of their families I photographed this trip. There was not a lot of originality when Europeans settled first in South Africa at Capetown area and started to name the birds. So if you visit and see a bird you can always guess it is a Cape something. LOL


Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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Bulletin 325 - South Africa #2 - Part 1 - Weavers, Bishops and Widowbirds; Croc and Hippo

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!

Weavers, widowbirds and bishops are part of a large family (113 species) of songbirds, all but 5 are in Africa and adjoining islands in the Indian Ocean. The bishops have been used as caged birds and some escapes are found in the USA. The weavers are most interesting, as the male is responsible for weaving a nest which is often quite intricate. Each species seems to have a different shape. He weaves the nest to attract a mate and often many nests are close together in the same tree. On one occasion, we saw many nests on the ground as the females did not like them and tore them down.

The 5" Lesser Masked Weaver (Ploceus intermedius) has just started to build his nest and it can be seen that he has actually tied knots on the branch to anchor his nest.

Lesser Masked Weaver - male

The 7" male Cape Weaver (Ploceus capensis) is yellow with a reddish face .

Cape Weaver - male

The 6" male Eastern Golden Weaver (Ploceus subaureus) is also known as the Yellow Weaver. Here is his intricate spherical nest anchored on 2 reeds.

Eastern Golden Weaver - male
AKA Yellow Weaver

The 6" male Dark-backed Weaver (Ploceus bicolor) is black above and a black head with bright yellow below.

Dark-backed Weaver - male

The 6" male Spectacled Weaver (Ploceus ocularius) is yellow with a black throat and black line through his eye.

Spectacled Weaver - male

The 6" male Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) has a black mask and black streaking on his back. This one is busy with nest building.

Village Weaver - male

The 6" male Southern Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus) builds a nest with elongated entrance. This was the species where many nests had been thrown to the ground by disgruntled females.

Southern Masked Weaver - male

However the award for the most intricate nest goes to the 7" male Thick-billed Weaver (Amblyospiza albifrons). The male is dark brown with lighter head and white spots above his bill.

Thick-billed Weaver - male

And here is one with his head sticking out the entrance hole of the nest he built. It is a work of art!

Thick-billed Weaver - male

The 9" male Red-billed Buffalo Weaver (Bubalornis niger) is all black with a bright red bill. These birds build a big stick nest containing up to a dozen apartments. They reminded of the bulky nests of the Monk Parakeets on power poles, we see here in USA.

Red-billed Buffalo Weaver - male

Continue to part 2