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Blue Crane Anthropoides paradisea
Agulhas Plains, Cape Province, South Africa. April.

One of the smallest of the 15 crane species worldwide the Vulnerable Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa. It’s endemic to southern Africa, with more than 99% of the population occurring within South Africa (a small disjunct breeding population of approximately 60 individuals […]

Birding the Cape: the west coast
May 29, 2008

For my second trip to South Africa in just three weeks, this time to Cape Town (the first was to Johannesburg), I decided to hire a professional guide for the two (actually, one-and-a-half) days I would be there. Normally I’m happy just to hire a car and wander […]

I’m just back from a superb two days birding in Cape Town, South Africa (just two days? For those who don’t know I work for an airline - I come, I go, what can I say…) with Brian Vanderwalt. It’s going to take me the best part of next week to work through all the […]

On May 16th (after visiting both Marievale and Suikerbosrand on the 15th) I spent the morning driving up and back down the Zaagkiuldrift gravel road to Kgomo-kgomo - a lightly-used, exotically-named dirt road that cuts between privately-owned farms and game reserves in excellent thornveld to the north of Pretoria. The road more or less follows […]

A couple of days ago I posted a short trip report on a visit I made to one of my favourite spots on earth - Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve in South Africa. Writing the post reminded me of just how many birds I’ve seen at this one small site, and I thought I might put a […]

Greater Striped Swallow Cecropis/Hirundo cucullata
Suikerbosrand, South Africa. May 2008
 
The Greater Striped Swallow Cecropis/Hirundo cucullata is a large swallow breeding in South Africa, Namibia and southern Zimbabwe. It is migratory wintering further north in Angola, Tanzania and southern Zaire. A bird of dry open country (such as the highveld grassland at Suikerbosrand where these photos were […]

After a few hours birding on the morning of May 15th at the excellent Marievale Bird Sanctuary I headed over to one of my favourite places anywhere - the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. Just a thirty minute drive from Marievale, Suikerbosrand NR protects a superb area of the highveld sandwiched between farmland and townships, an undulating, […]

Right. Hands up all those of you fed-up with Mike and Corey’s posts on tens of thousands of wood-warblers migrating through various parks and forests in New York. Anyone? Do I see a hand, any hand…just one would do…how about you sir, over in the corner? No? There must be someone…? I guess not - […]

I photographed this non-breeding plumaged cisticola on the circuit through the upper part of Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, south of Johannesburg. It was giving a very high, thin whispery sub-song which consisted of various, different “tsee” notes both from the ground and on the grass stem it flew up to. It didn’t call in the air […]

Crowned Lapwings Vanellus coronatus
South Africa
 
Crowned Lapwings (or Crowned Plovers as they are also widely known) are widespread on savannas in Africa from Ethiopia to Angola - particularly favouring dry, short, or over-grazed grassland - and are common throughout South Africa where they are regularly found in suburban settings. They feed mainly by opportunistically foraging […]

Capped Wheatear Oenanthe pileata
Gauteng and Cape Province, South Africa.
 
One of 17 species of wheatear found in Africa, the Capped Wheatear is a large, striking species found from southern Kenya to the Cape. Typically found on barren, sandy, or stony areas in flat country throughout South Africa, Capped Wheatears are characterful birds often seen scanning their […]

Cape Bulbul Pycnonotus capensis
Cape Province, South Africa (various dates)
 
The Cape Bulbul is a southern South African endemic found in the coastal bush and fynbos of the Western and Eastern Cape, as well as exotic thickets, gardens and parks. A conspicuous species, like many other similar African Pycnonotus bulbuls it tends to sit chattering away at […]

Hadeda Ibis Bostrychia hagedash
Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa

The chunky, short-legged Hadeda Ibis is found throughout open grasslands, savanna and rainforests of Sudan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Gabon, Zaire, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Somalia and South Africa, and also in urban parks and large gardens. It feeds mainly on earthworms, using its long scimitar-like bill to […]

Agulhas Clapper Lark Mirafra majoriae
South Africa, April 2007

The Agulhas Plains near Malgas (south of Swellendam), Western Cape

 
The Agulhas (pronounced Uh - gull - ous) Plains (or Overberg) is a fynbos region of incredible floral endemism right at the bottom of Africa that also lays claim to two species of endemic lark: the Agulhas Clapper Lark […]

Agulhas Long-billed Larks Certhilauda brevirostris
South Africa, April 2007

The Agulhas Plains near Malgas (south of Swellendam), Western Cape

 
The Agulhas Plains (or Overberg) is a fynbos region of incredible floral endemism right at the bottom of Africa that also lays claim to two species of endemic lark: the Agulhas Long-billed Lark and the Agulhas Clapper Lark. Much […]

Grey-backed Sparrow-lark Eremopterix verticalis verticalis
The Karoo, Sept and Dec 2006, and the Agulhas Plains, April 2007

One of three species of sparrow-lark occurring in southern Africa, the Grey-backed Sparrow-lark is a SW African endemic found from coastal Angola throughout Zimabwe and Namibia, and down to the Cape. In South Africa it is perhaps most commonly […]

Red-capped Lark Calandrella cinerea
Western Cape, South Africa. December 2006 and April 2007

The Red-capped Lark Calandrella cinerea breeds in the highlands of eastern Africa southwards from Ethiopia and northern Somalia. In the south, its range stretches across the continent to Angola and south to the Cape in South Africa. In eastern Africa, this is a bird […]

Female/immature Amur Falcons Falco amurensis
South Africa, March 2007

Closely related to the European Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus, the beautiful and agile Amur Falcon breeds in northern Asia and Siberia and winters in southern Africa. After breeding Amurs undertake what is probably the longest regular overwater passage of any raptor when they cross the Indian Ocean […]

Faansie Peacock (Self-published, 2006)

Writing a review of a book which is entirely dedicated to the pipits of southern Africa might at first glance seem obscure, like an act of one-upmanship that says to the majority of mainly residential birders, “I travel a lot, so I need a book like this even if you don’t” […]

Groundscraper Thrush Psophocichla litsipsirupa
South Africa, March 2007

Blessed with one of the most melodious sounding specific descriptors in ornithology (the onomatopoeic litsitsirupa) the Groundscraper Thrush is an African endemic found in eastern and southern Africa from Eritrea south to the Cape.

Despite looking superficially like a European Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus, this is a peculiarly short-tailed and […]