Sunday, November 25, 2018

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

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

Continued from Part 1

The bishops and widowbirds are all the same genus. The males are usually black and the females non-descript sparrow-like streaked brown birds.

The 4.5" male Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix) is all red except the face and underparts.


Southern Red Bishop - male
The 6" male Yellow Bishop (Euplectes capensis) is all black except for a yellow rump and shoulder patch.


Yellow Bishop - male

The male widowbirds are mostly black with a long fancy tail. The 6" male Fan-tailed Widowbird (Euplectes axillaris) has the shortest tail of the 3 species I photographed.


Fan-tailed Widowbird - male
Next is the 10" male Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens). He is all black with a red collar on the front of his throat.

Red-collared Widowbird  - male
And finally, the prize goes to the 24" male Long-tailed Widowbird (Euplectes progne). He is all black with a red shoulder patch and an amazing tail. He reminds me of a Red-winged Blackbird but for the tail.


Long-tailed Widowbird - male

He flies up and flutters his tail to attract a female. Here is another photo.

Long-tailed Widowbird - male
South Africa is a pretty dry country and before the rainy season in their summer, many rivers have dried up. So any permanent water attracts lots critters including the most dangerous animals in Africa. There is a large estuary at St Lucia on the Indian Ocean coast, in fact, it is the largest river estuary in all of the continent. We had a boat ride to see wildlife there.

The Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is the second largest croc in the world with males averaging up to 16' in length and 1600 pounds weight. They eat any kind of flesh including mammals, birds, fish and other reptiles. Wikipedia says they  are responsible for 'hundreds of human deaths' annually.

Nile Crocodile
The other may be the worlds most dangerous mammal with estimates of up to 500 human deaths annually in Africa. The of course is the huge Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). They average about 3000 pounds in weight and despite their size, they can run at up to 19mph over short distances. They are highly aggressive and unpredictable and have attacked tourist boats, capsizing them. 

During the day they mostly stay submerged in the water to stay cool.

Common Hippopotamus
Occasionally we saw birds landing on their backs. Here is a Spotted Sandpiper and another time we saw a large Gray Heron.

Common Hippopotamus and Spotted Sandpiper
They are herbivores and eat mostly short grasses and can eat 150 pounds grass daily. This one was eating some reeds along the bank of the estuary.

Common Hippopotamus
What makes hippos so dangerous is that they come onto land at night to browse on short grass. They make travel up to 6 miles from the lake or waterway to find the food and may come across humans on the way. At our B&B in St Lucia, they posted a warning sign to beware of hippos at night as we saw hoof prints in the gravel parking lot.


One night after supper in town, we found several  hippos in a city park.

 Common Hippos at night
What makes them so deadly are the huge tusks, as well as their immense size. The lower tusks are 8" long and a hippo bite to the chest or abdomen would lacerate many internal organs.

Common Hippopotamus skull

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

I have photos of 14 of the 113
 species of weavers and widowbirds

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.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

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

Bulletin 324 - South Africa #1 - part 2 - Plovers, Sandpipers, Jacana and Mongooses

Continued from Part 1 

We also saw 5 sandpipers close enough to photograph. They were all in non-breeding plumage as they were migrants from Eurasia. Without the guide, I would not have been able to ID the birds. The 9" Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) was a life bird for me.


Marsh Sandpiper
The 8" Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is IDed by the yellow base of the bill. 


Wood Sandpiper
The 12" Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) as the name implies has greenish legs.


Common Greenshank
The 8" Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) has yellow legs, a white shoulder patch and bobs when he walks. When we first saw the bird on a boat ride, he was standing on the back of a hippo, but the hippo submerged and he jumped onto a branch.


Common Sandpiper

Lastly is another lifer, the 5" Little Stint (Calidris minuta). The book says this is the most common of the small sandpipers in southern Africa.

Little Stint
After these dull sandpipers, the colorful African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus) was a nice change. We saw several of the on the trip. It is an easy ID with the blue bill and shield on the forehead and long legs. It is endemic to Africa and another lifer.

African Jacana
Among mammals, I was surprised that we found 4 species of mongoose. All of them are native to Africa. The first was the Banded Mongoose (Mungos mungo). It is gray and brown with darker bands across the back of the animal. We saw several of these.

Banded Mongoose
The next one was the Slender Mongoose (Galerella sanguinea). It ran across the road and stopped on a log to look at us. It is yellowish in color. This was the only one of the species that we encountered.

Slender Mongoose
We saw 2 of the Yellow Mongoose (Cynictis penicillata). The first ran into his burrow before I could take a photo, but this one stood up to look around.

Yellow Mongoose
The last one is the Suricate (Suricata suricatta). It is also known as the Meerkat. You have probably seen groups of Meekats on TV shows all standing up.

Suricate
AKA Meerkat

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

I have photos of 24 of the 67
 species of plovers

I have photos of 46 of the 93 species of sandpipers

I have photos of 4 of the 8 species of jacanas

I have photos of 5 of the 35 species of mongooses



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.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Bulletin 323 - Guatemala #9 - Antthrush, Antvireo, Becards, Ovenbirds, Croc

I went for a third visit to Guatemala in May. Once again, I used the wonderful local guide Knut Eisermann of Cayaya Birding. On this visit, we went to different locations to see new species.

I photographed my second Antthrush and it was a life bird. The 7.5" Mayan Antthrush (Formicarius monilager)


Mayan Antthrush
I also saw and photographed my second antvireo. The 4.5" Plain Antvireo (Dysithamnus mentalis) is a tiny gray bird with yellowish belly and spots on his wings.


Plain Antvireo
The funarids or ovenbirds are a huge family of mostly brown birds that glean insects in various fashions. Many of then are difficult to see clearly and try your patience to get a photo. The woodcreepers ascend the trunk of a tree like a woodpecker. The 8" Ruddy Woodcreeper (Dendrocincla homochroa) is a uniform bright rufous color,



Ruddy Woodcreeper

The 7.5" Tawny-winged Woodcreeper (Dendrocincla anbatina) is olive brown above with rufous wings. Both these species will follow ant swarms and that is where we saw them.


Tawny-winged Woodcreeper
The 6.5" Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (Anabacerthia variegaticeps) is a brown bird with rufous tail and a light colored throat.


Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner
The leaf-tossers walk on the forest floor and turn over leaves to uncover insects. The 7" Scaly-throated Leaf-tosser (Sclerurus guatemalensis) is a dark brown bird. Here he is just seen from the back through a window in vegetation.


Scaly-throated Leaf-tosser
The 6" Tawny-throated Leaf-tosser (Sclerurus mexicanus) is brown above and rufous below.


Tawny-throated Leaf-tosser
The next 2 birds were formerly in the flycatcher family but have since been moved to the becards. The 7" Northern Royal Flycatcher (Onychorhynchus mexicanus) is a brown bird with rufous tail and a large crest that is kept folded back giving a hammer head look.


Northern Royal Flycatcher
And a different view where can see the orange and black crest.


Northern Royal Flycatcher
The last bird is a favorite of mine since I first saw it in Costa Rica about 25 years ago. The 6.5" Northern Schiffornis (Schiffornis varaepacis). This is a plain brown bird, but his song is a very clear "Heeeey Ricky". I will never forget that song.


Northern Schiffornis
Lastly is the Morelet's Crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) is a smallish croc up to 8' in length. They inhabit fresh water and swamps from Mexico to Belize and Guatemala along the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico coasts.


Morelet's Crocodile
I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 2 of the 12
 species of antthrushes

I have photos of 20 of the 236 species of antbirds, antvireos

I have photos of 31 of the 313 species of ovenbirds

I have photos of 10 of the 45 species of tityras and becards

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.