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 […]

Learning about speciation from White-eyes

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 […]