Skukuza area – 10,000 Birds

Skukuza is the largest camp and the administrative center of Kruger Park. Inside the camps, you can walk freely – outside, this privilege is reserved for animals.

There are several species of raptor around Skukuza. For some reason, I found them on average less impressive than raptors elsewhere – almost “big brown work”, probably because a few of them are young. Of course, they are still worth seeing:

The African Fish Eagle (which, as the name suggests, lives mainly on fish in Africa, because getting fish elsewhere is too long)…

… The Brown Snake Eagle (which actually lives mainly on snakes, though not necessarily only by browns) …

… The Jackal Buzzard (a potentially relatively lazy bird-according to HBW, a female was re-trapped after nine years only 8 km from the original area)…

… The Tawny Eagle (listed as Vulnerable and likely a fan of the band Madness, as eBird specifically mentioned in its “baggy pants”) …

… The Martial Eaglelisted as Endangered and has the interesting Latin name bellicosus, which means very similar to martial …

At The Eagle of Wahlbergwhich is said to be the most common eagle in South and Central Africa.

A Barn Owl slept peacefully inside the roof of a visited tourist cafe. It warned me not to order a latte though – overpriced and not very good, according to Owl.

If you want to get some irrelevant information on hornbills, please read my previous post on them. If you just wanted to see some pictures of hornbills around Skukuza, here they are:

African Hornbill The fire

The fire Southern Yellow Hornbill The fire

At Southern Red-billed Hornbill

Straight evangelical Christians are probably frowning African Jacanas because they were polyandrous (one female, more than one male) and reversed sexual roles (“males seem to play most of the nest building, all incubation and all care of the precocial young”). Most likely, the devil, not god created this species.

African Spoonbills seems not to be surprised at the large reptiles. I guess you just get used to it over time.

While some bustards are the largest bird species capable of flying, the Black-bellied Bustard just mid-sized. Apparently, the guy had a weird call to cork-popping advertising, but even though we rarely listen to car music in Skukuza, we never heard it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any income whatsoever if you look at my older posts, so it’s pretty pointless to accompany these photos a Black-collared Barbet with a link to an older post on barbets. There is also an older blog post on 10,000 Birds (by Adam Riley) specifically on Africa’s Barbets. Hopefully, since he is the owner of a birding company, Rockjumper, he somehow gets some clients this way.

Wealthy older women can learn a lot from Emerald-spotted Wood Dove about how to access in a small but effective way.

The European Bee-eater good winter in africa …

… While the White throatd Bee -eater – even more sober – does not leave there in the summer.

For some reason, the largest member of the heron family is not called the Great Heron or the Giant Heron but the Goliath Heron. Consistency is overrated.

Gray Herons often refuses to play basketball with the Goliath Herons – they say it’s not fair. I tried the same line of argument in high school, I didn’t help much.

While I have not seen a Stiated Heron using baiting in Skukuza, the species is known to do so, and I have seen it elsewhere. It is also documented in the video.

Suppose the Squacco Heron it does that too, even though I haven’t seen it myself.

Because I have limited confidence in my bird id skills, I have to rely on location to call it a Greater Blue-eared Starling than a Lesser. Quite a charm.

About Pytilia with green wings, HBW’s entry included the disgusting “Popular cagebird, large numbers of which are captured and exported; dying during high cargo ”. Humanity can be a difficult resource to humanity.

While the Gray Go-away Bird are closely related to the colorful turacos, they are uniformly gray-brown, which earned them the well-deserved Latin species name concolor. It’s pretty frustrating that the Latin name has nothing to do with their pretty amusing English name. I don’t want to pronounce the word “onomatopoetic” without a bit of practice, but the name “Go-away bird” is clearly onomatopoetic based on the species ’alarm call (which really sounds like“ leave ”if that’s what you want. ready to hear).

Some Hadada Ibis earn a large portion of their income from doing voice-overs on children’s TV programs. Their talent for this work has long been recognized: “Frederick Jackson, then -century Governor of Uganda, and an early leading authority on the birds of East Africa, was likened [their] call to the frightening ridicule of a witch. ” (HBW)

Helmeted Guineafowl there seems to be some sort of paternity leave system within their flock-when the dominant male and female leave to have children, the second highest-ranking male will temporarily become the leader of the flock (HBW).

Most likely, the Christmas Spurfowl thinks Kruger Park is good habitat, with all the large animals around – the HBW statements (with slight disapproval) that the species is looking for rhinoceros and elephant dung.

The bird…

… And the excrement giver.

If you want to explain the name of Chinspot Batis, helps to have a picture of the woman – it really has a stain on the chin. Of course, after all, I’m only showing you men.

Similarly, to explain the name of Lesser Masked Weaverit helps to have a picture of a man available (the woman doesn’t wear any mask-like).

Sa Red-billed Quelea.

The Red-billed Quelea – also a type of weaver – seems to be the most undomesticated bird in the world, something that people don’t enjoy (although it’s okay with us that pet chickens are more common). As a consequence, the species is sometimes called the “African feathered locust”, and control measures include the detonation of fire bombs in the colonies at night (origin). Like Dresden, I guess.

According to eBird, the Spectacled Weaver recognizable by the “Zorro-like bandit mask surrounding the pale eye”. I wonder if – after Russia incorporates the Z sign into its country’s identity – Zorro films in the Western world will be avoided. On the other hand, I still occasionally drink Corona beer, so probably not.

Levaillant’s Cuckoo looks like a roadrunner, except that it has a different color, prefers to stay in trees than on land, and lives on a different continent. Well, they are both species of cuckoo.

The Latin species name of Lilac-breasted Roller ay tailedor short-tailed-because of the amazing colors of this bird, this is a clear indication that the person who thought of this name must be color blind.

The Orange-breasted Bushshrike with a more appropriate Latin name, sulfureopectus.

For some reason, it was like I only got a girl Pied Kingfishers in Skukuza, because men have a narrow second breast band while women have a broken breast band (origin)

The same is true for Red-billed Firefinch -a pity for the sexist photographer, because the man is more attractive than the woman.

It’s probably juvenile Lesser Striped Swallow The fire

… While it is a Swallow with red chest. In light that is too intense to give a good picture.

I was hoping for that Saturday Lark to be named after some captivating Western explorer with a juicy biography, but unfortunately, sabotage is a Tswana word for larks. I’m sorry I let you down.

The Southern Boubou probably derived its name from its contact call, a repetitive, low-pitched “boubou”, mainly male.

The shrike family (Laniidae) has two genera, one (Lanius) with 32 species and one (Eurocephalus) with 2 species. Below is one of these two, the Southern White-crowned Shrike. I am sometimes saddened by the lack of creativity in bird names, so you are right to guess that the name of the other species in this genus is Northern White-crowned Shrike.

Please contact me if you can think of anything interesting to say about Tawny-flanked Pyouth.

If my understanding of bird anatomy is correct, the Water Thick-knee should be rightly called Water Thick-ankle, because what can be seen almost in the middle of the bird’s legs are its ankles, not its knees.

The name of Sunbird with a white belly I’m a bit disappointed-surely the white belly isn’t the most amazing feature of this species? The Latin name talatala seems more appropriate – the note means green in Tswana, and the note means very green (HBW). I had a hunch that there are other languages ​​that use doubling of the same word to indicate intensification, and (after asking a friend linguist and birder) found out that the term is “reduplication”. Wikipedia usefully added that “Examples of this can be found even in distant Sumerian, where it was used in the construction of certain colored terms, e.g. big “white”, kukku “Black”.

In any case, if you want to demotivate an individual of this sunbird species, feel free to call it White-bellied Sunbird.

The woman probably still wouldn’t mind.

Most likely, the Lapwing with a white crown is grateful to be named for its white crown and not for the pretty ridiculous looking yellow wattle.

The HBW entry sa White-throated Robin-Chat provides a fascinating insight into the daily work of ornithologists (in the “Diet and Vision” section):

“Invertebrates and fruit. Of the twelve stomachs and 26 stool samples, 63% held beetles, 55% ants, 42% termites, 37% caterpillars and moths, 18% spiders, 11% orthopterans, 11% bugs, 5% flies, 5% (not spiders) arachnids, 3% centipedes, and 13% fruit ”

A friend with me on the trip described Marabu Stork as the ugliest bird he had ever seen. From a dentist who saw his share of decaying teeth and craving gum disease, it was a harsh judgment.

Compared to that species, the Yellow-billed Stork is a beauty.

While of course most people visit Kruger Park for its amazing birds, some exotic ones come mainly for some other animals. To make these people happy, I added a few more photos.