Diederik cuckoo – observations and photos of mating rituals and nest intrusions

Diederik cuckoo, male

The unmistakeable, loud deed-deed-deed-deed-er-ick call of the diederik cuckoo, Chrysococcyx caprius, is a characteristic of the spring and summer landscape of southern Africa. The species is an intra-African migrant, tending to follow the rains, returning to southern Africa in September-October (mainly October, thought to be timed for the breeding season of its Ploceidae hosts). It […]

Learning about speciation from White-eyes

Orange River white-eye

When I first saw the Orange River White-eye a couple of months ago, it got me thinking about the group, and having seen white-eyes in different parts of the world, I wondered about their evolution. There is something weird about a group with so many different but similar species, and within which strangely different looking […]

A tale of serendipity

Forbes-Watson’s Swift

In March of 2017 I was leading a birding tour to Southern Mozambique. On 3 March, while searching for the Green Tinkerbird some 30km inland from Inhassoro, I became aware that there were swifts overhead. Without giving it too much thought I recorded Common Swift on Birdlasser, but did pause to think that it was […]

Why I photograph birds

Way back in 1986, when I was leaving New Brunswick, Canada to go spend two years in Zimbabwe, my friend Anne Bardou gave me a book, “A Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa”. While Zimbabwe is not East Africa, the book went to all the parks that I managed to get to in […]