For many people around the world, the coming weekend carries spiritual meaning, symbolic of rebirth and renewal. And chocolate bunnies. And colorful eggs. And lots and lots of birds. Celebrate your way!
I have much to celebrate, as my family and I are embarked on a Spring Break sojourn to Panama by way of Canada. Expect my Best Bird of the Weekend to be Neotrop-tastic. Corey will be spending a rare weekend in the NYC area, a great place to be in early spring. How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.
Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend!
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
Hi out there.
This weekend I will go bird watching with my business partner Awel in Menagesha State Forest National Park. This evergreen forest lies 40 kilometers West of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.
It shall be interesting to see how many of the bird species we can actually spot out of the list that we aim for on one of the itineraries. That list is as follows:
Key birds: African Crowded Eagle, Yellow-Fronted Parrot, White-Cheeked Turaco, Abyssinian Ground Thrush.
Endemic birds: Abyssinian Catbird, Yellow-Fronted Parrot.
Near to endemic: Abyssinian Slaty Flycatcher, Banded Barbet, White-Cheeked Turaco, Abyssinian Woodpecker, White-Backed Black Tit, Abyssinian Oriole.
Other birds: African Hill Barber, Mountain Buzzard, Sharpe’s Starling, Abyssinian Ground Thrush, Montane White-Eye.
Starting the holiday weekend in the lovely Nigaloo Reef of West Australia, then flying to Sydney.
So Awel and I went bird watching in Menagesha State Forest West of Addis Ababa. Menagesha is the last remaining forest near Addis, an evergreen forest.
Some places in the forest the birds are all over – especially around the tiny creeks, and where there is short bush. In other places the birds go high up in canopies, making them difficult to spot.
The Montane White-Eye and the Mountain Thrush are particularly plenty. The melodious call of the Abyssinian Oriole and the Abyssinian Catbird are heard frequently, but the birds are difficult to spot here high up in the dense forest. The same with the White-Cheeked Turaco; this shy and restless bird moves around high up in the Juniper trees making it difficult to get a clear view.
On the entire tour we managed to see the following:
The near to endemics: White-Cheeked Turaco, Abyssinian Slaty Flycatcher, Abyssinian Oriole, White-Collared Pigeon, Thick-Billed Raven, Black-Winged Love Bird and White-Backed Black Tit.
The common birds: Fan-Tailed Raven, Speckled Pigeon, African Olive Pigeon, Montane White-Eye, Mountain Thrush, Abyssinian Ground Thrush, Grey-Backed Camaroptera, African Dusky Flycatcher, Blue-Breasted Bee-Eater, Baglafecht Weaver, Brown-Rumped Seedeater, Greater Blue-Eared Starling, Slender-Billed Starling, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Pied Crow, Common Fiscal, Tacaze Sunbird, Yellow-Billed Kite, Black Kite, Barn Swallow, Black Saw-Wing, Brown-Throated Martin and Hemprich’s Hornbill.
Sound calls: African Crowned Eagle and Abyssinian Catbird.
We also saw Menelik’s Bushbuck, Black-and-White Colobus Monkey and a group of Anubis Baboons. All in all not bad for a quick trip.