Bulletin 328 - South Africa #5 - Part 1 - Waterfowl, Finfoot, Cormorants, Darter, Rails, Buffalo, Eland

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!

Africa is the second largest continent despite its representation on maps as North America looks larger, but you are projecting a sphere onto a plane. It is 25% larger then North America. So naturally it will have many more species of all things. I was surprised at the number of waterfowl (9) I photographed on the trip.

The geese included the huge 38" Spur-winged Goose (Plectopterus gambensis). It is a large black goose with some white on the wings.

Spur-winged Goose - male with 2 females

The 30" Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) is a large beige goose with a distinctive brown area around his eyes. This peculiar looking goose is often found as escapes in parks in the USA. It was nice to see the wild version.

Egyptian Goose

The last goose is the 12" African Pygmy Goose (Nettapus auritus). The male had rusty belly, white face and green back of the head and neck. This is an uncommon bird in South Africa as it requires a large body water with lots floating lily pads. The guide knew a single location, on a farm where there were large ponds for irrigation water. He was able to get permission to gain access. It reminded me of driving around the dikes at Anahauc NWR. This is one of the top target birds for South Africa.

African Pygmy Goose - male

Here is the pair together and the female has beige face and brown back of her head,

African Pygmy Goose - pair

The 18" White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata) is all dark brown except for the white face and is an easy ID. He is resident in South America as well as Africa, but I have missed him on all my SA trips. He was a lifer for me.

White-faced Whistling Duck

The 20" African Black Duck (Anas sparsa) is all black with some white spots on the wings. 

African Black Duck

The 20" Yellow-billed Duck (Anas undulata)  is a beige duck with a bright yellow bill.

Yellow-billed Duck

The 13" Hottentot Teal (Anas hottentota) is a beige duck with brown crown and bluish bill.

Hottentot Teal

The 18" Red-billed Teal (Anas erythrorhyncha) is a beige teal with dark brown cap and red bill.

Red-billed Teal

Lastly is the 18" Cape Teal (Anas capensis). It is all gray-brown with a red bill.

Cape Teal

Continue to part 2