Bulletin 360 - Uganda #4 - Swallows, Wagtails and Pipits

After the week in the Capetown area, the guide Casper Badenhorst, and I flew to Uganda and met a local guide. We started at Entebbe Airport on the southeast corner of Uganda and made a diagonal trip to Murchison Falls NP in the northwest corner. From there, we proceeded south through a chain of nature preserves and parks to the southwest corner at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We finished along the southern border back to the airport.


There were 5 species of swallows on the trip with first 2 being lifers. The 7" Wire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithi) has a blue back white belly and rufous crown.

Wire-tailed Swallow

The 6" Angola Swallow (Hirundo angolensis) is very similar to the Barn Swallow below but the underside is gray rather then white and the blue chest band in not complete.

Angola Swallow

The 7.5" Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustcica) in the Old World is white underneath rather than rufous like ours.

Barn Swallow

The 6.5"  Lesser Striped Swallow (Cecropis abyssinica) had a blue back, rufous crown and heavily streaked underside.

Lesser Striped Swallow

Lastly is the 8" Mosque Swallow (Cecropis senegalensis). It has a blue back rufous breast and belly and pale throat. This one has a mouth full of mud to add to the nest.

Mosque Swallow

Here is his mate on the nest adding her blob of mud. You will notice the first layer of mud has dried from the day before and they are working on next addition. It was finished on the third day

Mosque Swallow - building nest

There were 3 wagtails on the trip with the first 2 being lifers. The 7.5" Mountain Wagtail (Motacilla clara) has the typical pied pattern but is gray backed with black wings and white.

Mountain Wagtail

The 7.5" Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) has a brownish olive back and bright yellow breast.

Western Yellow Wagtail

The 8" African Pied Wagtail (Motacilla aguimp) is of course black and white. This one was on the road right beside the car.

African Pied Wagtail

There were 3 pipits but none were new. The 6.5" African Pipit (Anthus cinnamomeus) has streaking on the back. All these similar birds best IDed by voice.

African Pipit

 The 6.5" Plain-backed Pipit (Anthus leucophrys) has an unstreaked back.

Plain-backed Pipit

The 9" Yellow-throated Longclaw (Macronyx croceus) is a colorful pipit with a bright yellow throat and belly and a black bib. He resembles our meadowlarks.

Yellow-throated Longclaw

One thing that has interested me for a long time are national birds. Now that I have done photography on several continents, I decided to look up national or official territorial birds. Some places do not have designated birds, so if they have the bird on their coat-of-arms, I used that bird. Despite the fact I have I have photographed in just a dozen countries, I have photos of the birds of 83 countries or territories. 

I did the same for the USA states and territories as well as the Canadian provinces. You can see them here.


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

I have photos of 26 of the 88 species of  swallows and martins

I have photos of 15 of the 65 species of  wagtails and pipits

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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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