Abuja, Nigeria
15 August 2006

A historical note (which may - or may not - be of interest):
I imagine anyone with a radio, tv, or with internet access will know of the ‘alleged’ bomb threat that has ground the UK’s major airports to a standstill this past week, and I guess anyone reading this might expect me - as an airline employee - to at least mention it?

Some world we live in, folks, some world…

Anyway, on to the birding…

Park across road from Hilton Hotel (just visible in the distance)

I should have been writing a report about a trip to the Cascades, north of Seattle, about now, but with the airline cancelling hundreds of flights my roster was changed and I ended up instead in Nigeria’s capital city Abuja.

The last time I went to Abuja - a sort-of new-town built (I reckon) so that the world’s diplomats don’t have to deal with the traffic chaos of Lagos - I had some reasonable birding in the hotel gardens and in a dense scrubby area just outside the hotel’s security wall. That trip had been in December when a good number of Palearctic migrants (including Western Olivaceous Warbler and Pied Flycatcher) had been wintering here. They wouldn’t be around in August of course, but as I’ve done relatively little West African birding there’s still plenty to see anyway and I was hoping to find something decent - providing the forecast ‘light showers’ held off long enough for me to get outside…

The one drawback about our flights to Nigeria is that they take off from London late at night and land in the early morning. I’ve tried having a word with ‘management’ to see if I can get the schedules changed so that I don’t feel obliged to go out birding on only 40 minutes sleep, but so far they don’t seem impressed (something about ‘business models’ and ‘What are you talking about?’). I suppose too that if you’re idiot enough to live by the slogan “Sleep can wait, I’m going birding…” you should expect to feel tired most of the time…

I only mention this because I’m sure that an experienced Abujan birder (if there are any who read this) will no doubt be able to point to a few missing species on the Trip List below. There were indeed a few species I expected to see that I didn’t (eg Piapiac, Yellow-fronted Tinker Barbet, and Red-vented Malimbe), but considering the time of year and the time of day - and the fact that I was birding in pretty degraded secondary habitat on the edge of a small city - I have to say I had a really enjoyable five or six hours birding (which included a surprising 30 species new for 2006) before the ‘light showers’ I’d been anticipating suddenly arrived and then quickly turned into a epic downpour of biblical flood proportions!

I spent nearly all of the time I had close to the hotel (in the same scrubby/streamside habitat I visited last time, though in the last few years much of it has been converted to fairly low-impact agricultural land) and wandering around across the road from the hotel in a small park (whose name I haven’t been able to find out) which ran alongside a river and some patchy riverine forest and ‘allotments’ - heavily degraded of course, but with a surprisingly good number of birds.

Whilst, as was to be expected, the “hotel area” held no migrants I had excellent views of common grassland/scrub species like Tawny-flanked Prinia, African Thrush, Bronze Mannikin, and both Northern Red and Black-winged Bishops, and - as last time - saw species I rarely see anywhere else such as Double-spurred Francolin, Black-billed Wood-dove, Senegal Coucal, Brown Babbler, Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, and Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu.

Double-spurred Francolin Francolinus bicalcaratus

Black-billed Wood-dove Turtur abyssinicus

African Thrush Turdus pelios - adult and juvenile. (For a gallery go to African Thrush)

Tawny-flanked Prinia Prinia subflava

Northern Red Bishop Euplectes franciscanus and Black-winged Bishop E. hordeaceus

Species I hadn’t expected here included a fly-over Violet Turaco (an amazing bird to have fly over you) and a Levaillant’s Cuckoo - neither stayed around to be photographed unfortunately, so you’ll have to trust me…

I wandered from here into the park I mentioned earlier almost by acccident by following a male African Golden Oriole along a small track under a road-bridge, stepping lightly over a bit of waste-ground used by the locals when they were ‘caught short’ (as my dear old gran used to say) as I went, and emerging out the other side as the Oriole disappeared into the far distance.

Whilst the immediately accessible part of the park was mainly manicured lawn (which a rather nice Plain-backed Pipit was picking insects from) with a few stunted trees (from where a juvenile African Cuckoo was giving Hell to its two ‘foster parents’) it was bordered by a small river and what looked to be some pretty decent habitat on the other side.

It wasn’t possible - or at least not recommended by a “guard” I met who said that “bad men smoke there” (and I don’t think he was talking about Marlboros) - to actually cross the river and check out the habitat in the photo above properly, but most of the birds I saw here either came out of this area or were feeding along its edge.

There were a number of ‘typical’ parkland/scrubland species here (such as Yellow-billed Shrike, Fork-tailed Drongo, and whole families of African Thrushes), but also some much more interesting birds: highlights included such gorgeous and/or ‘exotic’ birds as African Blue Flycatcher (which was a ‘lifer’ for me and so like a Rhipidura fantail that I couldn’t get my groggy thoughts around what it was at first), a very flighty Red-headed Lovebird, an African Broad-billed Roller, a small group of Yellow-throated Greenbuls, a pair of very noisy Giant Kingfisher, a pair of very silent Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrikes (what on Earth is a Red-winged Blackbird doing in a park in Nigeria?, was my first befuddled thought as I saw the male searching through the foliage of an acacia-like tree), Green-headed and Copper Sunbirds, Brown-throated Wattle-eye, and Northern Puffback.

Juvenile African Cuckoo Cuculus gularis

 

Female and male Red-shouldered Cuckooshrike Campephaga phoenicea

 

Yellow-throated Greenbul Chlorocichla flavicollis

 

African Blue-flycatcher Elminia longicauda

 

Unfortunately the very dull weather didn’t make photography all that easy - and impossible after about 11:30am when the storm broke heavily (and rather uneccesarily hard in my opinion) - and I only just made it back to the hotel before I drowned (I’m exaggerating, but it was REALLY wet)…

I went back out for an hour or two in the late afternoon after some sleep and had another quick search around the immediate vicinity of the hotel. I picked up Crag Martin here (possibly nesting somewhere near the top of the hotel) and a few more ‘garden’ species, but on the whole it was pretty quiet: the most interesting bird by far was the Paradise Flycatcher in the picture below.

It was getting pretty dark and I only saw this bird “through the camera” before it flew off and I didn’t look properly at the photo until I got back home and downloaded it onto my computer. I had assumed it would be an African Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis - which should show pale undertail-coverts - but it looks more like Rufous-vented Paradise-Flycatcher T. rufocinerea: however, as far as I can find out this would represent quite a large northerly range extension for this Central African endemic.

The bird also looks very like a similarly plumaged Terpsiphone I photographed in December 2004 in the same gardens [photo below], and which again I have not been able to identify with any certainty. I posted a query on the AfricanBirding Yahoo list server and got back some fascinating responses - enough anyway to make it worth while posting a separate page on the discussion with a whole pile of other photos. If you’re interested please go to Charlies Bird Blog: Paradise Flycatcher ID

Terpsiphone sp: Abuja, 15 August 2006

 

Terpsiphone sp: Abuja, 12 December 2004 (note blue-black head)

So, rather typically, Nigeria threw me a birding curve ball right at the close of play - but it was an exciting few hours birding…hopefully next time I’ll feel brave enough to get even further away from the hotel, and who knows what I might find then!

Trip List:
Striated Heron Butorides striatus 1; Hamerkop Scopus umbretta 1; Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus 5; Shikra Accipiter badius 3; Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus 2; Double-spurred Francolin Francolinus bicalcaratus 3; Red-eyed Dove Streptopelia semitorquata 10+; Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis 10+; Black-billed Wood-dove Turtur abyssinicus 2; Red-headed Lovebird Agapornis pullarius 1; Senegal Parrot Poicephalus senegalu 2; Violet Turaco Musophaga violacea 1; Western Grey Plantain-eater Crinifer piscator 5; Levaillant’s Cuckoo Clamator levaillantii 1; African Cuckoo Cuculus gularis 2; Didric Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius 2; Senegal Coucal Centropus senegalensis 5-6; African Palm Swift Cypsiurus parvus 20+; Little Swift Apus affinis 20+; Giant Kingfisher Megaceryle maxima 2; African Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus glaucurus 1; Green Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus 2; Lesser Honeyguide Indicator minor 1; Lesser Striped-swallow Hirundo abyssinica 8-10; Rock Martin Ptyonoprogne fuligula 2-3; Plain-backed Pipit Anthus leucophrys 1; Red-shouldered Cuckooshrike Campephaga phoenicea 2; Common Bulbul Pycnonotus barbatus 20+; Yellow-throated Greenbul Chlorocichla flavicollis 5-6; African Thrush Turdus pelios 30-40; Tawny-flanked Prinia Prinia subflava 10+; Green-backed Camaroptera Camaropterabrachyura 3-4; Snowy-crowned Robin-chat Cossypha niveicapilla 3-4; Brown-throated Wattle-eye Platysteira cyanea 1; African Blue-flycatcher Elminia longicauda 2; African Paradise-flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis 1; Brown Babbler Turdoides plebejus 4-5; Green-headed Sunbird Nectarinia verticalis 6+; Scarlet-chested Sunbird Nectarinia senegalensis 6+; Copper Sunbird Nectarinia cuprea 5-6; African Golden Oriole Oriolus auratus 1; Yellow-billed Shrike Corvinella corvina 6; Northern Puffback Dryoscopus gambensis 2; Black-crowned Tchagra Tchagra senegalus 1; Fork-tailed Drongo Dicrurus adsimilis 4-5; Pied Crow Corvus albus 5-6; Village Weaver Ploceus cucullatus 10+; Black-necked Weaver Ploceus nigricollis brachpterus 3-4 (with thanks to Russell for the ID); Northern Red Bishop Euplectes franciscanus c)10; Black-winged Bishop Euplectes hordeaceus 5-6; Red-billed Firefinch Lagonosticta senegala 10+; Red-cheeked Cordonbleu Uraeginthus bengalus c)10; Bronze Mannikin Lonchura cucullata 10+

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All photographs copyright Charlie Moores.