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Letaba is a large rest camp in the North central part of the park. It is near a river, attracting some birds that like to eat wet food.
As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. So, sometimes it comes to South Africa to relax and enjoy relative anonymity.
Colorful bills and heads seem to be popular among Letaba bird species – see African Jacana (blue and black)…
… The Stiated Heron (yellow and blue)…
… and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red).
Reportedly, the Knee-thick water its nest is sometimes located near the nest of Nile crocodiles as it offers some protection. A bit like renting an apartment next to a mass murderer in the hopes that it will deter other criminals, but as they say, nature knows best.
The Latin species name vermiculatus (like a worm) refers to marks on the upper side.
The name of the bird is either because the Knee-thick water usually stays close to water, or because about 60% of its weight is water (origin). Of course, the second explanation makes more sense.
The African Sleep looks very similar to Eurasian but is now considered a separate species by most authorities.
While hoopoes are in their own family, DNA studies suggest that hoopoe diverged from hornbills, and wood-hoopoes and scimitarbils from hoopoe.
The birds I asked about it pretended to be unrelated to anyone.
Bad luck for Southern Ground Hornbill – apparently, it is considered a bad omen in many African countries, “as a bearer or indicator of death/destruction/loss/deprivation, which bird is generally considered a bad sign of evil spirits and harbinger of calamities” (origin).
This can lead to poisoning of birds. Others are killed for use in traditional medicine.
If that sounds stupid, that’s because it is.
If any government wanted to put a camera in my apartment, I probably would react like this Southern Ground Hornbill.
While it is a very charismatic bird, the Southern Grey-headed Sparrow emphatically not.
On Quoraa question asked (probably not by a sparrow) is “What does he mean I have a beautiful soul?”
The (unfortunately perhaps very misleading) answer given there is “When I hear, ‘good soul’ I associate it with someone who is purely genuine. I believe it is a very good compliment and a deep compliment. If a man says this to a woman, he is looking deeper than the surface and is truly trying to understand you and what he understands about you, makes you beautiful to him.”
The sparrow does not want to hear that it has a beautiful soul. Love to be called beautiful, sexy and glamorous.
(Sorry – I haven’t taken my anti-cynicism medicine in a while, and it’s starting to show).
The Ashy Flycatcher the same appeals to most birders looking for internal values rather than an attractive exterior.
However, the Ashy Flycatcher objects to being placed in the same category as the sparrow – it wants to point out that eBird calls it a “slim, cool-gray flycatcher”. Which is actually slightly better than “A sparrow with a uniform gray head and underparts”.
The Tawny-flanked Prinia is another rather dull bird. However, it is kind of sophisticated because the females lay very individual eggs to detect the added eggs of the parasite cuckoo finch.
As Claire Spottiswood explains“These variations seem to act like complex marks on a banknote: complex colors and patterns act to make host eggs more difficult for the parasite to forge, just as watermarks act to make it harder to forge counterfeits’ banknotes.”
Green terpsiphone is the full Latin species name for African Paradise Flycatcher. The first part seems to make sense – Terpsichore is the Greek muse of dance – while the second part (viridis means green) leaves me puzzled.
Interestingly, HBW provides different contact calls depending on the country where the flycatcher lives: “Contact with a simple ‘zeet, zwayt’ (South Africa), ‘ti-twit tee -twit’ (Gabon), ‘zi’zk’ zk’ (Tanzania).” That is why cross-country pairings with these species are almost unsuccessful.
Let’s hope it finds a relatively unbroken breeding habitat – study show that the failure rate of nests is higher in fragmented habitats.
The eyes do the Babbler with an arrow mark a bit like a serial killer.
Or even an “angry looking bird” (origin).
“Arrow-Marked Babblers roam in gangs of a dozen or more, like troops of monkeys or wild dogs, constantly talking among themselves. If you come across a group in ground looking for food, look around and you will see a bird sitting on a high place, ready to give the alarm in case of any danger. It is a watchman, a watchman, watcher; they take turns to do this duty.” (origin)
The Chinspot Stream gets a better review – instead of being described as looking angry, eBird calls it “a cute, dumpy, colorful flycatcher-like bird” (although most girls I know would probably prefer that don’t call it dumpy). The photo shows a male – the female also has some chestnut spots.
Swainson’s Spurfowl is a rather unlucky species for two reasons – one, it is considered a delicacy by outdoor and hunting enthusiasts in Zimbabwe (origin), and another, named after William Swainson, an English ornithologist with an ill-advised side activity in botany.
William Jackson Hooker wrote about these activities: “In my life, I don’t think I have ever read such a series of rubbish and nonsense. There was a man who left this country with the character of a first-rate naturalist (though with many eccentricities) and a very first-rate Natural History artist and he went to Australia and took up the subject of Botany, where he was as ignorant as a goose.”
And Joseph Maiden added that Swainson’s botanical efforts were “an exhibition of careless production of species which, so far as I know, is unrivaled in the annals of botanical literature”.
Interesting, isn’t it? By the way, Swainson’s Spurfowl is another bird.
The Christmas Spurfowl are in the same genus Pternists. Its vocalization is given a low rating (about two 1.5 stars by HBW – “generally harsh and somewhat uninteresting”).
Maybe, it’s nice to have a hyperactive imagination (I don’t know). But this is not the best qualification to be a writer eBird. The call of the Double-banded Sandgrouse is given as a squeal and grunt: “oh NO, he’s gone and done it AGAIN!”.
Also, this species is a favorite to win a medal if binge drinking becomes an Olympic sport (origin).
The Square-tailed Drongo just lengthened its name Common Square-tailed Drongo. At least no more mail actually intended for the Western Square-tailed Drongo gets mis-delivered to its door.
The word “normal” was added in honor of a great Pulp song, “Ordinary People“…
… while the Latin species name Ludwig honors Baron von Ludwig, a German pharmacist who started Cape Town’s first botanic garden (origin).
You may believe that I do this (well-justified based on past experience), but there really is one study titled “Socioeconomic and Cultural Importance of The Yellow-Fronted Canary (Serinus Mozambicus) in Northern Benin” examining the background of canary traders. It was published in the suspiciously broadly titled “European Scientific Journal” (impact factor: about 0.7).
Among the findings: “Canary merchants, mostly with a primary education level (63.25%) and Muslim (97.5%), are on average 44 years old and an average experience of 27 years. They did the activity this part-time (96.5%). … The activity is profitable for all of them (100%) with 128,624 FCFA (233.18 USD) net income per month.”
And the abstract ends with the usual “why we did it” statement: “This study is necessary to better assess the pressure on the species to predict its conservation.”
“Don’t stand near me” is a terrible song by The Police, though that’s a bit of an understatement. However, playing this song can be useful when meeting the Southern Red-billed Hornbill.
(Song link removal is intentional. Thank you.)
There are three types of Uraeginthus waxbills including Blue Waxbill (the other two are basically blue but have some slight but clearly visible differences).
Interestingly, male waxbills don’t seem to care about species diversity – they just prefer larger females (origin).
To put it in the language of science: “Males do not prefer conspecific females whenever they are given the choice of a larger heterospecific female”.
Is bigger always better? Doesn’t seem like a very sustainable strategy in the long term.
According to this paper, Red-winged Starling populations in Cape Town consist of both resident pairs and roving flocks. The territory of resident pairs is “successfully defended against odd pairs, but not against herds, which ignore pairs except during mating”.
Somehow, that leaves me with a mental image of a flock of juvenile starlings grouped around a copulating pair, staring and maybe even clapping. Not a very appealing thought.
The nest of Black-backed Puffback is built by women only (HBW), although men sometimes bring materials, coffee, and sandwiches. The pictures show a woman.
According to eBirdwhile African Green Doves often remaining well hidden in vegetation, they are often “detected by their delightful song, which includes whinnies, clicks, whistles, cackles, and grunts”.
I think these pictures illustrate the first part of the eBird statement better than the second part.
As always in Kruger, there are some animals that are not important for birders. I don’t quite understand why they weren’t kicked out of the park.
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