Tag: Birds

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2024-11-17: Predatory Birds

Last week I focused on land predators, and this week, it is a few predators of the air.

A Pel’s Fishing Owl. As the name suggests, this owl primarily feeds on fish. I’ve highlighted this owl in a previous post, with more images of this owl and her chick, which can be found here. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
It would have been nice if this dark chanting goshawk had turned its head slightly, but at least it stayed still so I could get a shot. I saw lots of dark chanting goshawks on this trip, and had previously only seen the pale chanting goshawk, so it was nice to add a new bird to my list (which I really should start keeping somewhere, other than in my head). These birds have a varied diet of small mammals, birds and reptiles. Klaserie Sands Private Game Reserve, South Africa. April, 2024.
This is the tawny eagle mentioned in my post from last week, that lead our group to a hyena sighting. I believe our guide thought that the tawny eagle was feeding on the liver of the impala that the hyena caught, but wasn’t 100% certain. It was definitely a very fresh piece of meat. Klaserie Sands Private Game Reserve, South Africa. April, 2024.
I’ve been fortunate to see many African fish eagles during my travels, as they are widespread and common, but this was the first time that I saw one having a drink at the river. Chobe National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
Another eagle I have been fortunate to see on several different trips; this is a brown snake eagle. As the name suggests, its primary diet is snakes. This sighting was one of the times where there actually was a bird on the tree, rather than just a piece of broken branch fooling us. Chobe National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
I was so excited to finally see an adult bateleur eagle during this trip, as previously I’d seen many juveniles, who don’t have near the impressive colours as this adult. We were very fortunate that this individual chose to stay on this branch for a long time, allowing all of our group the chance for good views and photographs. Savute Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
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2024-02-25: Birds

I had a lot of bird images saved in my quick collection to edit, so I took the easy route, and worked on those today. Sometimes, the path of least resistant is the best way to go.

These images are both from my most recent travels and a trip to South Africa in 2019.

I’m sure safari guides never tire of guests calling this bird “banana head”. A yellow billed hornbill.
I believe this is a red-crested bustard, but without the crest lifted, it is a bit challenging to tell.
A fiery-necked nightjar spotted on the way back to camp.
A lilac breasted roller calling.
A majestic fish eagle.
A coqui francolin. I wish I could have caught him posing with something other than a large dung pile, but that’s where he wanted to be.
A grey go-away bird. This bird has simultaneously the most obnoxious and most hilarious call. If there is one hanging around my room, sometimes I’ll talk back to it. Whether that makes me obnoxious or hilarious is up for debate 🙂
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2023-04-23: Birds around the water

My photo sharing has been quite haphazard and random lately, and today is no different. As I got to my computer to work on images, the heavens opened up with the first thunderstorm of the year. After calming the pups down from the surprise of the loud noises, I thought decided to focus on bird around the water for today.

All of these birds are ones that I had seen before, but I still needed to go to my bird app to double check on both the heron and the kingfisher. Hopefully I have those identified correctly.

A hamerkop seen whilst on a drive around the town of Victoria Falls. Zimbabwe, 2022.
A group of pelicans spotted while on a game drive in Zambezi National Park. Zimbabwe, 2022.
A pair of African skimmers seen while on a boat cruise in Chobe National Park. Botswana, 2022.
A brown hooded kingfisher seen while on a boat cruise for the Zambezi River. Zimbabwe, 2022.
A striated heron seen along the banks of the Zambezi River. Zimbabwe, 2022.
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2023-04-02: Birds in Southern Africa

The arrival this week of the robins makes it feel like spring is finally on the way, despite the volume of snow that is still on the ground. Listening to their song and seeing them on the road reminded me that I have posted very few bird images lately, even though my last trip was bird focused.

The selection for this week is fairly random; just a small sampling of some of the birds seen on my most recent trip, with more to follow.

A pair of lesser striped swallows seen in Madikwe. There were several pairs nesting in the photography hide at Jaci’s lodge, giving some great opportunities to watch these birds up close. South Africa, November, 2022.
A southern masked weaver perched in the reeds along the edge of a dam. This individual was spotted whilst on a bird trip just outside of Johannesburg. South Africa, November, 2022.
A long tailed widow bird spotted near Johannesburg. These birds are amazing in flight; their long breeding feathers nearly pulling them out of the air.
A starling, I believe the greater blue eared, seen while traveling in Zimbabwe. November, 2022.
A violet backed starling in perfect morning light. Botswana, November, 2022.
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2023-01-01: Violet backed starling

I was glad to start the new year working on my photography a bit, even if it was primarily behind the scenes, housekeeping type work, like finally finishing my first round of star rating my trip photos. When I came to the few photos I captured of the male violet backed starling, I smiled remembering how excited I was to finally have the opportunity to capture one of these birds in fairly decent light; that was enough to decide that this was the photo to edit if there was only going to be time to do one.

Our tour had a one-day trip into Chobe National Park in Botswana. It was a place I had visited on my first trip to Africa, and our group even had lunch at the same lodge I visited the first trip, so it really was a walk down memory lane. Being a different season, the experience was significantly different, but still very enjoyable. After border formalities and getting to the park, we were driving towards the river when our guide heard of some lions off of the main road about 20 minutes away. Our two guides chatted for a few minutes while slowly driving along, before making the choice to turn back to give people the chance to see some big cats. We spotted this starling just before making the decision to turn around, and it was only one of two that I saw on the trip (the other not offering any photo opportunities) so I am glad we carried on as far as we did before turning back for the lions.

Male violet backed starling, Chobe National Park, November 2022.

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2022-12-18: Eagle Owl

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken any volume of photos (May 2019 to be exact) and I’d forgotten how time consuming it is to go through images and rate them to determine which deserve editing. With other obligations for my time, I’ve only gotten through about 2/3rds of my images from my recent trip, on a first pass only. But, at least I am making progress. I reached the image I’m sharing today and decided to stop and edit it. I absolutely love owls, and it’s magical whenever there is an opportunity to see one. I was lucky enough to have one land outside my office window earlier this week, but as I was working I didn’t get any images. Maybe that is why this one stood out for me today.

On my recent tour, we were transferring from Hwange National Park to Tsowa Island in Zambezi National Park, and came upon a family of 3 Verreaux’s eagle owls. While they were quite high in the trees, there were still opportunities for good viewing and photos. I think I captured a few images with a least two of the family together, but I’m running out of day, so a single owl will have to do for today.

While I still haven’t gotten back into any type of routine with editing and posting, it feels good to be spending some time on this again.

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2021-04-25: Hornbills

I’d planned to edit and post these two weeks ago, but life got in the way. First, I was distracted by some ravens in the yard, and last week, I was caught up with studying for finals and didn’t manage to sneak in any time for photo editing. I’m enjoying a very brief break from studies and to be honest, not quite sure what to do with all this free time on my hands!

This week will feature some hornbill images, and hopefully I can carry on with local birds next week, as there are lots of new faces in the area now that it is warming up.

A yellow-billed hornbill with a bite of lunch.
A red-billed hornbill perched in the late afternoon.
A southern ground hornbill, along with a pair of egyptian geese.
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2021-02-28: Birds

Now that February is ending, it won’t be long before it is time to bring in the feeders, as the birds start having better sources of food available. Mostly though, it’s to mitigate the risk of having bears close to the house; if I could, I would keep feeders out year round to watch the birds.

With the cold and damp, I’ve not spent much time outside snapping shots of the chickadees and pine siskins, so instead, I found some bird images I hadn’t worked through yet from my last trip. There is one mystery bird in there, that I didn’t write the name down when I saw them, but I am hoping a friend based in South Africa will be able to help me out – fingers crossed.

A grey go-away bird.
Mystery birds – if anyone knows what these are, please let me know!
A crested barbet
A green wood-hoopoe catching a bit of shut eye.
A coppery-tailed coucal

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