Bulletin 381 - Uganda #25 - Parrot, Ducks, Rollers

 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.

Parrots are always fun to see and photo. The first 2 are in the African and New World Parrots family. The 12" Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) is a popular cage bird and familiar to most with gray body and red tail.

Grey Parrot

The 9" Meyer's Parrot (Poicephalus meyeri) has a brown head, back and wings, with green breast and tail. He has yellow patches on his shoulder and head.

Meyer's Parrot

The 5" Red-headed Lovebird (Agapornis pullarius) is a small green parrot with a red face. He is in the Old World Parrots family and the first in that family I have photographed.

Red-headed Lovebird

The 19" White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata) is a long necked duck, with a brown body, black neck and white face. Here is a nice family photo of a pair with ducklings.

White-faced Whistling Duck

The 23" Yellow-billed Duck (Anas undulata) is a plain brown duck with a bright yellow bill.

Yellow-billed Duck

The only new duck in Uganda was the 16" White-backed Duck (Thalassornis leuconotus). It is a brown duck with a white spot at the base of the bill. To see this bird we had to climb under a barb wire fence and walk into a cattle pasture to the pond where the pair was known to stay.

White-backed Duck

This is another bird named for the most obscure field mark as the white back can only be seen when the bird is in flight. Here is one of them taking off.

White-backed Duck

Rollers are an Old World small family of birds. The 15" Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) is an amazingly beautiful bird.

Lilac-breasted Roller

The 11" Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus) has a brown back, purple breast and pale blue undertail.. He has a big yellow bill.

Broad-billed Roller

The new species was the 16" Abyssinian Roller (Coracias abyssinicus). He is pale blue with a brown back and white face.

Abyssinian Roller

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

I have photos of 40 of the 177 species of New World and African Parrots

I have photos of 73 of the 168 species of  waterfowl

I have photos of 4 of the 13 species of rollers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2021 David McDonald

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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