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Master Blaster

48 hours in the Vumba

A World Leader In Key Biodiversity Areas

South Africa’s large number of sites qualifying as global Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) highlights the country’s incredible biodiversity wealth. BirdLife South Africa, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the WWF Nedbank Green Trust have partnered in the KBA process.

Sightings In The Subregion

In general, late autumn to midwinter is one of the quieter times for rarities and this year it was exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown. Fortunately, later in the review period some of the restrictions were relaxed slightly and people could move a bit further afield and also more often, giving the opportunity for a few good birds to be found and reported.

Vultures & The Economics Of Disease

Humans, livestock and wildlife have co-existed for thousands of years, but exponential human population growth, a surge in international travel, increased human encroachment into wildlife habitat and an escalation of organic waste provide the ideal circumstances for the emergence and adaptations of a variety of infectious diseases.

Better Late Than Never

First record of Madagascar Pratincole in South Africa

Adapting To The New Normal

In an article in the July/August 2020 issue of African Birdlife, I tried to piece together the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on birds from anecdotal reports across the country. One of the more effective ways to confirm that behavioural changes were linked to the lockdown was to monitor what happened as it eased. In the case of Muizenberg beach, outside Cape Town, the signal was clear.

Best Of Birding In Ethiopia

Ethiopia ranks among the most ecologically diverse countries in Africa.

twitter FEED

Every evening my mum takes our dogs, Pipa and Molly, for a walk.

Discover Birding

So you want to be a birder?

Rate Of Return

Fynbos is a fire climax community, which means that it requires fire to persist. The dominance of fynbos in the south-western tip of Africa is intimately linked to the occurrence of fires.

Space Invaders

Accipiter tussle on the Cape Peninsula

Wild Ride: Atlasing in the Mara region

It’s 05h30 and my heart is racing, my ears alert. I’ve just tried to escape a charging elephant bull on foot. While I hunker down in the bushes, listening for cracking branches or a low rumble emanating from the dense shrubs around me, I hear a Rufous-naped Lark, Tropical Boubou and a distant Schalow’s Turaco. A cacophony of 60 low-flying Grey Crowned Cranes distracts me momentarily from my potentially precarious situation. If it’s the last photograph I take, it might be worth it. When the cranes have passed I hear the roar of lions, but they are a way off. The stomach rumbling of the elephant sounds a safe distance away, so I return through the undergrowth to my companions, who are hidden at a water- hole observation point. Having witnessed the chase, it won’t be Green Sandpiper and the domestic squabbles of Egyptian Geese that they remember from this day.

Taking The Long View

Long focal lengths when photographing birds

Lessons In Lockdown Covid-19 – A Boon For Birds?

As Covid-19 lockdowns swept the world, there were numerous reports of how wildlife adapted to the new normal. Some of the more outrageous stories turned out to be as fake as a Trump White House briefing, but it was clear that with far fewer people and cars out and about, normally shy wildlife was quick to take advantage of the situation. Peter Ryan canvassed birders to try to piece together how birds responded to the unprecedented reduction in human activity.

no entry

Southern Ground-Hornbills thwarted by a terrapin shell

cavity combat

For four months we closely monitored the nest site of a pair of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills near Brits in the North West Province.

HOT flushes

How Southern Ground-Hornbills keep their cool

all good things...

The Peninsula’s Peregrines

Sounding The Alarm

How to find Wood Owls...

Chilling In The Desert?

Pygmy Falcons Polihierax semi-torquatus are among the world’s smallest raptors.

Spot The Difference

Distinguishing Mountain and African pipits in the field Mountain and non-breeding African pipits are frustratingly difficult to separate in the field when they occur in the same area. This happens from autumn to early spring, about six to seven months of the year. During this time the lower mandible of both species, a key identification feature, is fairly similar and differentiating the species becomes very tricky.

Shrinking Returns

Long-term changes in Northern Cape coastal birds

Home On The Range?

Is the Mountain Pipit an altitudinal migrant into KwaZulu-Natal?

supernormal

Clutches in Hartlaub’s Gulls

sightings IN THE SUBREGION

Mid-January to mid-March 2020

man power

Observations of Black Coucal breeding in Mtunzini, KwaZulu-Natal

pot luck

A lid filled with water provided an ideal bath for a hot African Pygmy Kingfisher in Liuwa Plains National Park.

back off!

Korhaan confrontation

Studying The Thunderbird

While BirdLife South Africa show-cases the Southern Ground-Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri as its 2020 Bird of the Year, the FitzPatrick Institute celebrates two decades of studying these iconic thunderbirds.

Girl Power

Black Sparrowhawk diva