Martial eagle catches a helmeted guineafowl but loses it to a black-backed jackal

Martial eagle catches a helmeted guineafowl but loses it to a black-backed jackal During October, 2022, I was lucky enough to spend 4 days in Letaba Camp at Kruger National Park with a bunch of other birders as part of an event organised by the park’s Honorary Rangers. The birding was lead by Prof Derek […]

The eagle and the bats

A Walberg’s eagle was photographed catching bats in the air at near dark in Letaba, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

The wood kingfishers

The wood kingfishers: jewels of the bushveld Visitors from Europe are often surprised when visiting this part of the world when they learn that we have so many species of kingfisher (10 species in South Africa), and that more than half of them are not associated with water. In Europe there is only one species […]

A leaf warbler fly-by

The leaf warblers form the only genus belonging to the family Phylloscopidae, introduced in 2006, prior to which it was placed in the Old World warbler family Sylviidae that has undergone much revision of the past couple of decades. The Phylloscopidae contains 81 species of tree-loving warblers that occur primarily in Eurasia and Africa, with one species making it as far east as Alaska.

Helmetshrikes: characters of the bushveld

Helmetshrikes: characters of the bushveld The helmetshrikes comprise one of the most distinctive groups of birds that you find in the Hoedspruit area where I live, and throughout the South African bushveld. They are never far away, and family groups are often seen on their own or as part of a bird party as they […]

Oxpeckers and mammals – a relationship only found in Africa

Oxpeckers and mammals – a relationship only found in Africa Everyone knows oxpeckers, those strange birds that hang around on mammals and make their living eating parasites, dead skin and blood. Watching them go about their business on mammals such as impala, zebra, giraffe and buffalo can be quite fascinating. There are two species of […]

A family of specialised nest parasites

A family of specialised nest parasites Most people are familiar with the nest parasitism – or brood parasitism – that is shown by our cuckoos, such as the Jacobin cuckoo and Diederik Cuckoos, where the birds lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species. These other species, the hosts, then feed and rear […]

Swifts and Swallows: Convergent Evolution in Action

Swifts and Swallows: Convergent Evolution in Action I live in the Hoedspruit area of Limpopo province of South Africa, and every summer, our skies are full of agile and fast birds flying around picking insects out of the air. In the dying days of our summer, some such as the barn swallow, muster in large […]

Stierling’s wren-warbler in South Africa

There is a loud, high-pitched, monotonous warbling sound that is heard throughout the bushveld in the Hoedspruit area in summer, particularly in areas with decent size trees. The Robert’s app describes the sound as a piercing biririt, biririt, biririt, biririt. It can be hard to locate the bird as it is small and typically calls from up in the tree. This is the call of the Stierling’s wren-warbler

How does the diederik cuckoo ‘know’ what colour egg to lay

How does the diederik cuckoo ‘know’ what colour egg to lay? It is summer now, and the “die die diederik” call of the onomatopoeic diederik cuckoo is heard throughout the bushveld. These birds migrate from equatorial regions of Africa in spring, arriving in South Africa starting in October and peaking when the rains come. Their […]