Bulletin 357 - Uganda #1 - Plovers and Lapwings

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.

Plovers and lapwings are a favorite bird family of mine ever since I first saw a Kildeer as a child in Canada. We saw a total of 10 species in Uganda, of which 5 were lifers for me. The first 4 lapwings were lifers. 

The 12" Long-toed Lapwing (Vanellus crassirostris) has a white face, black hood, red eye and red legs.

Long-toed Lapwing

The 10" Black-headed lapwing (Vanellus tectus) has a black head and thin crest with white stripe across face. He has a yellow eye.

Black-headed Lapwing

The 11" Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosis) is similar to the Long-toed above but the entire top of the head is black. None of the photos I took showed the spurs on the wing.

Spur-winged Lapwing

The last lifer is the 10" Senegal Lapwing (Vanellus lugubris). It is the plainest as has a gray head and brown body. It has a yellow eye.

Senegal Lapwing

The 13.5" African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus) is an easy ID with yellow, wattled, legs and bill. Notice this bird does have spurs on the wings.

African Wattled Lapwing

The 12" Crowned Lapwing (Vanellus coronatus) is a brown lapwing with black and white top of head.

Crowned Lapwing

Uganda has several lakes in the Rift Valley and the largest lake in Africa - Lake Victoria. We had the pleasure of 3 boat trips. One was on the White Nile River to the base of Murchison Falls. It is famous for having the largest volume of water of any falls in the world.

The 8" Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) was seen on the shore during one of the trips. It is a typical small plover and is a winter migrant here so the markings are muted.

Common Ringed Plover

We only saw a single 7" Three-banded Plover (Charadrius tricollaris). It seems poorly named as there are only 2 dark breast bands like our Killdeer. The red eye and bill are distinctive.

Three-banded Plover

We had the 6" Kittlitz's Plover (Charadrius pecuarius) again. But this was my closest photo of this bird. He is a beautiful little plover in breeding plumage and I love his name as well.

Kittlitz's Plover

The last was a real treat. The 8" Caspian Plover (Charadrius asiaticus) is another beautiful little plover. My luck is amazing as this bird can be difficult to find in Africa. The guide has a client in London who has come to Africa 4 times specifically to see this bird and missed it every time. We saw it on March 1st in non-breeding plumage. 

Caspian Plover - winter

Then a week later saw it in breeding plumage with the red chest.

Caspian Plover - breeding

And another bird was right beside the vehicle.

Caspian Plover - breeding

In all, we probably saw about 20 Caspian Plovers in several locations. Of course this was a lifer for me.

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


I have photos of 29 of the 67 species of  plovers and lapwings

I discovered a new book :"The World's Rarest Birds" by Hirschfeld, Swash and Still published in 2013. It lists all the 600 birds that are designated as Endangered or Critically Endangered or Extinct in Wild and only survive in captive breeding programs.

They have illustrations or photos of the birds, a brief description and reasons that they are endangered - pet trade, deforestation, logging, change in water areas, pollution, fishing, invasive species etc.

Also they have the estimated populations of each species at the time of publication.

I was delighted to see that I have photos of 42 of these birds already in my collection of photos. I knew some of them already, but the most surprising was the Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer in Colombia. It was rediscovered in 2003 after not been seen since 1965.

BirdLife International is an organizational of regional bird conservancy groups and works to protect these birds from extinction.

I put these 42 birds in a separate folder for your enjoyment.

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 353 - South Africa 2020 #7 - Shorebirds, rails

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 western Cape region is a semi desert. You may have read last year that Capetown was suffering from a multi-year drought and was on water rationing with the possibility of no fresh water at all. Fortunately they got some rain and refilled the reservoirs. But it is on the coast, so along with a wetland outside the city, many shorebirds can be found.

The best sandpiper was the 12" African Snipe (Gallinago nigripennis). This long billed, normally secretive bird, was in a marshy puddle beside the road. The guide said it was outstanding to see it in the open about 5 meters from the car. The guide is finally starting to believe how lucky I am when go birding.  Hahhaha. Another lifer for me. All snipes are exciting to find.

African Snipe

Several migrants from Europe were present as well. The whimbrel was finally split into 2 species. The 17"  Eurasian Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) has a striped head and down curved bill. It has a white back that is not seen on this photo, I actually had photographed this bird in Galveston many years ago, before the split, when an astute birder realized this was the European species. The white back is easily seen. FYI the whimbrel in North America is now called the Hudsonian Whimbrel.

Eurasian Whimbrel

The 10"  Ruff (Calidris pugnax) is an uncommonn vagrant in the lower 48 states, although it breeds in Alaska. 

Ruff - non breeding

The 5.5" Little Stint (Calidris minuta) shown here in winter plumage is the reason I use a guide as I would never know which species this is.

Little Stint - winter

In the plover family, I finally got some close up of the African endemics. The 5" Kittlitz's Plover (Charadius pecuarius) has a black ring aroiund the head and in breeding a chestnut breast. This bird in molting into the breeding plumage and some color can be seen on his chest.

Kittlitz's Plover

The 6.5" White-fronted Plover (Charadius marginatus) is perfectly camouflaged on the beach.

White-fronted Plover

The 17" African Oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini) is all black with the typical long red bill of oystercatchers. This bird was a lifer for me.

African Oystercatcher

In the wetland along with the ducks we saw 2 weeks ago were members of the rail family. By driving on the dikes between ponds and taking photos out the window, I got my best photos of these species.

The 13" Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) is a gray and brown bodied bird with a short bicolored bill.

Common Mooorhen

The 17" Red-knobbed Coot (Fulca cristata) is a typical gray colored coot with white bill and shield. He really does have 2 small red knobs on the top of the shield. I cannot imagine the purpose of those knobs. This is an endemic bird in Africa.

Red-knobbed Coot

The last was a lifer as well. It is the 18" African Swamphen (Porphyrio madagascariensis). This is similar to our Purple Gallinule, but it is much larger and has a red bill and shield. 

African Swamphen

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

I have photos of 50 of the 93 species of sandpipers

I have photos of 29 of the 67 species of  plovers and lapwings

I have photos of 4 of the 11 species of  oystercatchers

I have photos of 18 of the 138 species of  rails, coots, gallinules

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 324 - South Africa #1 - part 1 - Plovers, Sandpipers, Jacana and Mongooses

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!

Plovers are my favorite shorebirds since I first saw a Killdeer with his 2 chest stripes, when I was a child.  I photographed 9 new ones for the trip..a record for any trip for me. The first was the 6" White-fronted Plover (Charadrius marginatus). It is IDed by white forehead and buffy breast.

White-fronted Plover

The 7.5" Common Ringed Plover  (Charadrius hiaticula) has a single wide breast band.

Common Ringed Plover

The third was a distant 6" Kittlitz's Plover  (Charadrius pecuarius). Despite the distance, it is easily IDed by the black ring around his head. It is endemic to Africa.

Kittlitz's Plover

The last small one is also endemic to Africa. The 7" Three-banded Plover  (Charadrius tricollaris). It is IDed by the 2 black breast bands and red eye ring.

Three-banded Plover

Many plovers lay their eggs on the ground with no nest. Here are eggs of the Three-banded Plover.

Three-banded Plover - eggs

Large long legged plovers are called lapwings. All of them here are endemic to Africa. The 12" Blacksmith Lapwing (Vanellus armatus) is an easy ID with his pied appearance.

Blacksmith Lapwing

The 10" Black-winged Lapwing (Vanellus melanopterus) has a gray head, black breast band and wings.

Black-winged Lapwing

The 12" Crowned Lapwing (Vanellus coronatus) is brown with a white ring around his head.

Crowned Lapwing

The 12" White-crowned Lapwing (Vanellus albiceps) has gray head and neck, white on top of head, yellow bill and yellow wattle from bill.

White-crowned Lapwing

Last is the 14" African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus). It is mostly gra brown with a white forehead and red above the bill, It also has a yellow bill and wattle

African Wattled Lapwing

Continue to part 2