above Red-billed Oxpeckers select hosts carrying the greatest number of ticks. One bird was found to have 1665 ticks in its stomach.
Cooperation is usually thought of as a relationship that involves consciously working together to produce a common benefit. However, cooperation can take different forms. Preconscious cooperation or symbiosis (Greek for ‘living together’) refers to a close, long-term partnership between two biologically different symbionts. Many animal and plant species take advantage of this behaviour, which visitors to southern Africa’s national parks and game reserves can best appreciate by watching for the curious interactions that exist between some bird species and big game.
Avian/mammalian associations are far more commonplace than most people realise. A 2018 study found that at least 48 bird species in sub-Saharan Africa have some form of feeding association with 31 species of large, wild living herbivorous mammals. While doing fieldwork in Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape I witnessed several classic examples of quite complex symbiotic relationships involving mutualism (when one species gets food while the other receives a valuable valet-cleaning service in return) and commensalism (when only one of the partners benefits while the other is unaffected). I also encountered some novel regional twists on the now-familiar symbiosis theme.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
