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Southern Africa's Birds (1 Viewer)

Dave Kennedy

Dave Kennedy

Well-known member
Hello to everybody! South Africa here! My name is Dave Kennedy, and I have been birding for around 35 years. Southern Africa has a bird list of over 900 species, so if anybody fancies a visit and has any questions, I will do my best to answer.

Think about South Africa's Highveld, Lowveld and Afromontane forests! An enormous coastline for seabirds! Namibia's deserts, Botswana's Okavango Delta and Kalahari! Zimbabwe's Zambezi River and the Eastern Highlands!

So many habitats, so little time.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Dave Kennedy
 
Hi Dave,
A warm welcome to you. Next year we are coming to Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and then a week at the Cape and really looking forward to it.
regards
Merlin
 
Hello, Merlin,

Nice to hear from you. You do not say whether you have visited Southern Africa previously, nor whether birding is the main focus of the trip. The period from October to March is usually very good for birds, since all the migrants are here and everybody is in breeding plumage. The downside is that this is the hottest, and sometimes the wettest, period of the year, especially from October through January. It can rain any time in the Cape!

If you have any queries about your trip, feel free to ask. In the meantime, try this site.....once you have figured out its navigation you will be able to determine which species you can expect to find where.

http://www.birds.sanbi.org/birp/birp_frameset_parent.htm

Best wishes,

Dave Kennedy
 
Hi Dave, and welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I doubt if I'll get down your way, but will enjoy reading and seeing your birds.
 
Hi, Lisa,

I'm afraid you and I are a long way apart, but stranger things have happened! You never know your luck, and one day maybe you'll get here. If you ever do, you won't regret it.
I see you have a picture of a ruby-throated hummingird. I hunted these little guys all over the Butchart Gardens near Victoria, British Columbia, only to be told eventually by someone working there that they had all migrated the previous week. So I never did get to see one.

With best wishes,

Dave Kennedy
 
Hi Dave,
Thanks for that Dave, I have been to West & East Africa but not Southern Africa; The purpose of the trip is as always to see as much and as many birds as I can, ( you mean there are people that do other things??)

Cheers Dave

best regards
Merlin.

Dave Kennedy said:
Hello, Merlin,

Nice to hear from you. You do not say whether you have visited Southern Africa previously, nor whether birding is the main focus of the trip. The period from October to March is usually very good for birds, since all the migrants are here and everybody is in breeding plumage. The downside is that this is the hottest, and sometimes the wettest, period of the year, especially from October through January. It can rain any time in the Cape!

If you have any queries about your trip, feel free to ask. In the meantime, try this site.....once you have figured out its navigation you will be able to determine which species you can expect to find where.

http://www.birds.sanbi.org/birp/birp_frameset_parent.htm

Best wishes,

Dave Kennedy
Click to expand...
 
Southern African Birds 1

Hi, everybody,

Many thanks for all the expressions of welcome. Time to meet a few southern African birds.

How do you like the cheek of the little Paradise Flycatcher mobbing the snake eagle? When that photo was taken we didn't even see the flycatcher. Sheer blind luck.

Regards,

Dave Kennedy
 

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Dave Kennedy said:
How do you like the cheek of the little Paradise Flycatcher mobbing the snake eagle? When that photo was taken we didn't even see the flycatcher. Sheer blind luck.
Click to expand...

That's a great shot Dave!
Like everyone else here, I look forward to reading about the birds and seeing more of your photos. It's a couple of years since we (my wife and I) were in RSA, and a couple of years before we return, but we are already looking forward to birding in our favourite country once again.
 
Thank you, Chris......
But it really was just luck. I've seen a similar occurrence with a fork-tailed drongo mobbing a tawny eagle, but that had an odd ending. After dive-bombing the eagle several times the drongo settled down on a branch beside the eagle, almost as if they were sitting down together for a chat. Very strange.

Best wishes,

Dave
 

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Similar Behavior

Hi.

I've noticed the same thing with N. Mockingbirds and Red-tailed Hawks here in the USA. A Mockingbird will keep bopping a Hawk sitting on a wire on the head and then will plop down on the wire only perhaps a foot or so away.

It's not often that a birder living in southeast Texas envies someone else their location, but I envy yours! I had two weeks in SA in December and it was great. I spent most of the time on the Highveld (Waterval Boven area), then three days in/around Kruger. I really can't wait to go back. The first visit was focused mainly on family and other mammals. Next time I'll be more concentrated on the birds.

Jeff
 
Hi, Jeff,

Thanks for the info about the mocking birds and the red-tailed hawks. Drongos are accomplished mimics, and that led to another odd incident involving a drongo. The Pearl-spotted owlet is at least partially diurnal, so birds recognise it as an enemy, and mob it accordingly. The distinctive call of a pearl-spotted owl is a signal for every small bird in the neighbourhood to head for the source and mob the tiny owl. One day (I was camping in the bush), around midday, I heard a pearl-spotted owlet calling close by. I walked over to see if I could get a photograph only to find a fork-tailed drongo imitating a pearl-spotted owlet, and doing such a good job that he was being mobbed by every small bird in the district. I have still to figure out what benefit the drongo hoped to get from such interaction. As far as I could see he was simply being pestered by a gang of small birds. Any comments?
Dave
 
Dave i have heard so much of your beautiful country and its birds..sigh..i havent seen any birds mobing other birds here in Malaysia..tho the birds here have a Singh mobing them with his T.D1 all the time...lol...:'D..welcome again Dave from a place (S.A.) i call Nature's Garden.Regards.:t:
 
Manjeet, Hi,

Nice to hear from you - and thank you for your kind words about South Africa. Mobbing is relatively common here. I have seen in the Kruger National Park a small black-shouldered kite actually drive away a very much larger martial eagle.

With Best wishes,

Dave
 
South African Longclaws

The illustrations show three South African longclaws as follows:

Cape Longclaw (formerly orange-throated)
Rosy-breasted Longclaw (formerly pink-throated)
Yellow-throated Longclaw

The first two were photographed in the Rocktail Bay area, and the last in the St Lucia area, of northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. The Cape Longclaw is the commonest, and the rosy-breasted hardest to find. They are grassland birds, behaving much like pipits.

Dave
 

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The longclaws have surely made my day,here in kenya we have all the three species you have mentioned and an endemic one ie Sharpes longclaw.
Nicky!
 
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