Bulletin 335 - South Africa #12 - Part 1 - Swallows, Wagtails, Sparrows, Bunting

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.

Swallows are another favorite family of birds as they are such graceful flyers. I saw 9 species, 8 of them were lifers. They are impossible to photograph in the air, so one has to wait to find them perched.

The only one I had seen previously is the 6.5" Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica). This is the European bird with a white belly. In the Americas, they are rufous.

Barn Swallow

The 6" White-throated Swallow (Hirundo albigularis) is similar except the throat is white rather than rufous.

White-throated Swallow

The next 4 species are all larger, long tailed species in the same genus. The 9.5 " Mosque Swallow (Cecropis senegalensis) has a blue back, white throat and rufous underside.

Mosque Swallow

The 8.5" Red-breasted Swallow (Cecropis semirufa) is all rufous below.

Red-breasted Swallow

The 7" Lesser Striped Swallow (Cecropis abyssinica) has a rufous crown and rump and blue back and wings. The breast and belly are white with heavy black streaking.

Lesser Striped Swallow

The 8" Greater Striped Swallow (Cecropis cucullata) is similar but the streaking is finer.

Greater Striped Swallow

The 6.5" Banded Martin (Riparia cincta) is a brown-backed swallow with white below and a brown breast band. It lacks a forked tail.

Banded Martin

The 5.5" Rock Martin (Ptyonoprogne fuligula) is dark brown above and lighter below.

Rock Martin

This bird was nesting above the sidewalk at a strip mall. Here are the babies in the nest.

Rock Martin nest with babies

Saw-wings are black swallows, The males have barbs of the outer web of outer primary wing feathers recurved giving a saw edge effect. They nest in burrows. I saw the 5.5" Black Saw-wing (Psalidoprocne pristoptera) flying around and finally one evening I saw one land.

Black Saw-wing

 Several days later, a bird landed on a bank beside the road for a few moments and I got this photo. You can see the saw tooth effect on his wing. I only got a single photo before he flew off, so I was glad that it was in focus.

Black Saw-wing

Wagtails and pipits are slim songbirds that forage on the ground. We had 7 species for the trip and all were lifers. The pipits are often LBJs..streaked sparrow like birds. The 7" African Pipit (Anthus cinnamomeus) has a streaked back.

African Pipit

The 5" Bushveld Pipit (Anthus caffer) has rufous on the wings.

Bushveld Pipit

Continued on Part 2