Bulletin 354 - South Africa 2020 #8 - Larks and other passerines

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 larks are a family of brown-streaked ground dwelling songbirds. There are 98 species mostly in Africa and just a single member in North America. I found 3 new ones on this trip. The 8" Agulhas Long-billed Lark (Certhilauda brevirosris) is one of the 5 species in the split of "Long-billed Lark" complex about 20 years ago. This one has the smallest range along the coast east of Capetown. It is dark brown, but is best IDed by voice.

Agulhas Long-billed Lark

The 7.5" Large-billed Lark (Galerida magnirostris) is a heavily streaked lark with buffy eyeline.

Large-billed Lark

The only one identified by color is the 6" Red-capped Lark (Calandrealla cinerea). He has a red cap and shoulder and the breast is not streaked.

Red-capped Lark

The 10" Fork-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis) is glossy black with a forked tail. For some reason I just like the name drongo, so I like to find these birds!

Fork-tailed Drongo

The 11" Pied Starling (Lamprotornis bicolor) is a brown-black bird with white vent and white eye. The bill is mostly yellow.

Pied Starling

The 9" Bokmakierie (Telophorus zeylonus) is a member of the bushshrike family. These birds are often brightly colored. This one has a gray head, yellow breast with a black bib. He reminds me of our meadowlarks in the USA. This cooperative bird was 15 feet from the car.

Bokmakierie

The 9" Olive Thrush (Turdus olivaceous) is similar to our American Robin.

Olive Thrush

I saw my first male Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus). The males weigh up to 100 lb. Only the males have the corkscrew horns. Animals in the south are much darker then further north. For comparison, here is a reddish-brown female from Kruger Park.

Bushbuck - male

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 331 - South Africa #8 - Part 1 - Bushshrikes, Crows, Monarch Flycatchers, Tit, Hyena, Leopard

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.

Bushshrikes are an African family of songbirds and not related to those birds we saw previously with names of shrikes, helmetshrikes, or cuckooshrikes. Many of them have peculiar names. There are 49 species in this family and I photographed 9 on this trip.

The 5.5" Brubru (Nilaus afer) has a black head, back, wings and white undersides. There are white stripes above the eye and on the wings. The flanks are rusty.

Brubru

The 9" Southern Boubou (Laniarius ferrugineus) is gray above with the same white line on the wing and is rusty below. This may be a juvenile male, as the book shows the rusty color up to the throat on the adult male. On the female the rusty color is just on the belly.

Southern Boubou - male

The 7" male Black-backed Puffback (Dryoscopus cubla) is black above and pure white below. He has a red eye. On display, he has some white feathers on his rump that can elevate like a puffball. Unfortunately, I did not see him displaying. The female has white above the eye.

Black-backed Puffback

The 9" Black-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra senegalus) is overall gray with rufous wings. The head is striped back and white with the top of the head black. This one supposedly is named for his call tchagra??

Black-crowned Tchagra

The last one with a funny name is the 9" Bokmakierie (Telophorus zeylonus). It is green backed and yellow below with a black bib. Despite the bushshrike family, this bird we always saw on the ground in the open.

Bokmakierie

The last 4 are actually named bushshrikes and are very secretive and hard to find. But the payoff is that they are colorful. The 10" Grey-headed Bushshrike (Malaconotus blanchoti) has a green back and wings, gray head and yellow undersides with and orange on the breast.

Grey-headed Bushshrike

The 8" male Olive Bushshrike (Chlorophoneus olivaceous) is similar but the throat is also orange and he has a black mask. The female lacks the black mask.

Olive Bushshrike - male

The 8" male Orange-breasted Bushshrike (Chlorophoneus sulfureopectus) has yellow above the eye and the brightest orange breast of the group. The female lacks the orange breast.

Orange-breasted Bushshrike - male

Lastly was the toughest of these birds to see as he is a real skulker. We actually had to get out of the vehicle with a ranger to pursue this bird into the forest to get a photo. They normally do not allow you to leave the vehicle due to the danger of big animals. But the pursuit was worth the payoff. The 8" male Gorgeous Bushshrike (Telophorus viridis) is stunning. If you see it, it is an easy ID. It is a target bird for South Africa.

Gorgeous Bushshrike - male

Continued on page 2