Bulletin 331 - South Africa #8 - Part 2 - Bushshrikes, Crows, Monarch Flycatchers, Tit, Hyena, Leopard

Continued from Part 1

There are 3 members of our chickadee family in South Africa, but I saw only one, the rather large 6" male Southern Black Tit (Parus niger). He is all black with some white on the wings. 

Southern Black Tit

There are also 3 resident members of the crow family. I saw them all but photographed only 2. The 19" Pied Crow (Corvus albus) is black with a white collar and breast.

Pied Crow

The 22" White-necked Raven (Corvus albicollis) is black with white on the nape of his neck.

White-necked Raven

The Monarch Flycatchers are a large family (99 species) of songbirds from Africa through Asia and the tropical Pacific islands including Hawaii. We saw 2 beautiful ones on the trip. The 6" male Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher (Trochocercus cyanomelas) is a blue and white bird with a black crest.

Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher

The male 14" male African Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis) is an easy ID with his black head, rufous back and long tail. He has a blue bill and eye ring.

African Paradise Flycatcher - male

The female is similar but with a shorter tail.

African Paradise Flycatcher - female

There are 2 hyena species in South Africa, but we only saw the larger Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta), They look like huge, heavily built dogs. The front legs are longer. They males weigh about 130 pounds and the females up to 190 pounds. They kill their own prey but also scavenge from kills made by other predators.

Spotted Hyena

Here is a close up of the face and if you just saw this photo, you would think it is a dog, but hyenas are a separate family of carnivores.

Spotted Hyena

The most amazing sighting on the trip was this female leopard in Kruger NP. Leopards are sort of wary and you are never guaranteed to see one. Well with my amazing luck, we saw 5 of them in 3 days in the park. This one was in a tree 10 yards off the road. When we first saw here she was lying down and later she sat up.

Leopard

Of course, more vehicles stopped to watch her, but she was not concerned. A bit later she climbed down from the tree and my guide said she would walk away from the vehicles into the woods. But she did not. She walked parallel to the road at that same distance. The cars were maneuvering to get ahead of her, so could get more photos.

Leopard

A moment later, to my surprise, she lay down and rolled over like a house cat.

Leopard

What an amazingly beautiful animal. We watched her for a total of 25 minutes before she finally walked away into the woods. 


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

I have photos of 14 of the 64 species of tits.

I have photos of 39 of the 130 species of crows and jays

I have photos of 4 of the 99 species of monarch flycatchers

I have photos of 5 of the 39 species of cats

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.