Bulletin 356 - South Africa 2020 #10 - finishing up

I was enchanted 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.

The 17" Giant Kingfisher (Megaceryle maximus) is the largest kingfisher in Africa. It is similar to our Belted Kingfisher in North America. The male has and all rufous chest and belly. The female here has a blue chest and rufous belly. There is a huge bill and shaggy crest.

Giant Kingfisher - female

The 8" Alpine Swift (Tachymarptis melba) is dark above and all white below except for a dark throat band and tail.

Alpine Swift

Mousebirds are a 6 species African family of long tailed crested usually brown or gray birds. The 12" Speckled Mousebird (Colius striatus) is brown bodied with a whitish crest, black mask, and bicolored bill.

Speckled Mousebird

The 12" White-backed Mousebird (Colius colius) is all gray with a white bill with black tip. This was a life bird for me.

White-backed Mousebird

The 16" Cape Spurfowl (Pternistis capensis) is a dark brown spurfowl with a red bill and black tip to the upper mandible.

Cape Spurfowl

I finally saw a breeding plumaged Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis).. It is attractive with a black and mahogany head and neck, white cheek spot and white tip to the bill.

Little Grebe - breeding

The 5" Brown-throated Martin (Riparia paliducola) is a gray-brown martin with a white belly.

Brown-throated Martin

The 5" Gray-backed Cisiticola (Cisticola subruficapilla) is a gray cisticola with a streaked back and rusty crown. It is almost endemic to the fynbos area.

Gray-backed Cisiticola

Another small bird in the fynbos is the 5.5" Karoo Prinia (Prinia maculosa). It is a brown-backed bird with streaked breast and long tail.

Karoo Prinia

The 4" Orange River White-eye (Zosterops pallidus) is a typical white eye, but he has pinkish flanks.

Orange River White-eye

Lastly is the 3.5" Swee Waxbill (Coccopygia melanotis). Waxbills are colorful and popular as cage birds. The male has a black face, bicolored bill, olive back, and red rump.

Swee Waxbill - male

This completes the birds in the Capetown area. Next week we will visit a new country.

One thing that has interested me for a long time are national birds. Now that I have done photography on several continents, I decided to look up national or official territorial birds. Some places do not have designated birds, so if they have the bird on their coat-of-arms, I used that bird. Despite the fact I have I have photographed in just a dozen countries, I have photos of the birds of 83 countries or territories. 

I did the same for the USA states and territories as well as the Canadian provinces. You can see them here.

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

I have photos of 18 of the 113 species of kingfishers

I have photos of 8 of the 106 species of  swifts

I have photos of 4 of the 6 species of  mousebirds

I have photos of 19 of the 182 species of pheasants, grouse

I have photos of 10 of the 22 species of grebes


I have photos of 26 of the 88 species of  swallows and martins

I have photos of 29 of the 160 species of cisticiolas, prinias 

I have photos of 4 of the 129 species of white-eyes


I have photos of 23 of the 141 species of  waxbills, munias 

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 336 - South Africa #13 - Part 1 - Kingfishers, Barbets, other non-passerines, 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.

South Africa is a dry country, so it seems strange to have so many kingfishers. However, some of them hunt lizards and insects rather than fish.

The 18" Giant Kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the worlds largest kingfisher. It is gray and white.This is a male with the brown breast. This was the only one of this species I saw.

Giant Kingfisher - male

The 11" Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) is a black and white kingfisher. I had a crummy photo of this bird in China, so I was glad to get a close up on this trip.

Pied Kingfisher - female

The 8.5" Brown-hooded Kingfisher (Halcyon albiventris) is mostly white with black and aqua wings and a brown crested head. He has a large bright red bill.

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Another of the same genus is the 7" Striped Kingfisher (Halcyon chelicuti) is similar but has a darker cap and lacks the aqua on the wings and tail.

Striped Kingfisher

The last is the stunning 5" Malachite Kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus). Just look at him. If you see this bird, you will know what he is.

Malachite Kingfisher

There were 2 pelicans on the trip. The 60" Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) breeds in southwestern Eurasia and winters in Africa

Great White Pelican

The smaller 52" Pink-backed Pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) is an African endemic bird.

Pink-backed Pelican

The 18" Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) is a long legged black and white wader with a thin black upturned bill. It is the only avocet in the area. I had photographed this bird before, but this was my closest ever to the bird and thus my best photo of the species.

Pied Avocet

There is a small family of birds related to shorebirds. In this family are birds called coursers and some called pratincoles. I had never seen any of them before, but photographed one of each this trip. The 8" Temminck's Courser (Cursorius temminckii) is a warm brown bird with a black line through the eye and rusty cap. It forages on the ground like a plover.

Temminck's Courser

The 11" Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola) hunts insects in the air. It has long pointed wings and a black collar.

Collared Pratincole

Continued on Part 2