MARCH 2024 GARDEN BIRDS

I have not spent a great deal of time at home this month nor have I used my camera much. While it has been a particularly busy month, I have enjoyed watching a pair of Knysna turacos fly across the garden now and then and hearing their rasping calls during the day. Cattle egrets abound, thanks to the presence of the Urban Herd, and my favourite view of them is when they fly across the garden en masse at the end of each day as they make their way to their perches in the CBD. Of course we always have Laughing doves that brighten each day with their cheerful burbling sounds. A Black-collared barbet or two have made occasional forays to the feeder – I am hoping to see more of them during the cooler winter months. We are still woken half an hour before sunrise every morning by the loud choruses of the Hadeda ibises that roost in the Natal fig tree in our garden and it has been fun watching Greater double-collared sunbirds feeding on the nectar of the Cape Honeysuckle flowers.

The weather has been very hot – some days have reached 38°C – making the various bird baths busy places for birds, such as this Olive Thrush.

The Cape Robin-Chat has also been a frequent visitor to this bird bath.

A different bird bath was favoured by a Speckled Pigeon.

Bronze Manikins also enjoyed visiting this one.

New visitors this month include a Southern Boubou which has become a regular visitor.

Others are a Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Cape Weavers, Amethyst Sunbirds, and a pair of Thick-billed Weavers. The latter have only appeared a few times – they never seem to spend much time here. Cape White-eyes, on the other hand, flit in and out of the shrubbery on a regular basis and enjoy visiting the nectar feeder we call the pub. Note that the photograph below is an old one: we no longer colour the sugar water as I have learned that the food colouring is not healthy for the birds.

My bird list for this month:

African Darter
African Green Pigeon
African Harrier Hawk
African Hoopoe
Amethyst Sunbird
Barthroated Apalis
Black-collared Barbet
Black-eyed (Dark-capped) Bulbul
Black-headed Oriole
Bronze Manikin
Cape Robin-Chat
Cape Turtle Dove
Cape Weaver
Cape White-eye
Cardinal Woodpecker
Cattle Egret
Common Fiscal
Fork-tailed Drongo
Greater Double-collared Sunbird
Grey-headed Bush Shrike
Grey-headed Sparrow
Hadeda Ibis
Knysna Turaco
Laughing Dove
Lesser-striped Swallow
Olive Thrush
Paradise Flycatcher
Pied Crow
Red-eyed Dove
Red-fronted Tinkerbird
Red-necked Spurfowl
Sacred Ibis
Southern Boubou
Southern Masked Weaver
Speckled Mousebird
Speckled Pigeon
Thick-billed Weaver
Village Weaver
White-rumped Swift
Yellow-fronted Canary

BIRDS A – B

It was while I was looking through the index of one of my field guides to birds that I thought of showing you some examples from A to B.

Bar-throated Apalis

Bataleur

Black-collared Barbet

Crested Barbet

Bokmakierie

Southern Boubou

COLOURFUL BIRDS IN MY GARDEN

‘Colourful’ might be stretching it a little for readers who are expecting bright reds, greens and yellows. I nonetheless enjoy these colourful birds – or birds with interesting patterns and / colours –  that appear in my garden fairly often, although I have combed through my archives to find suitable photographs of them. I mentioned in my previous post that the Lesser-striped Swallows have left. Enjoy a close look at the bold stripes and russet head of this one perched on a telephone cable.

From lesser to greater: this is a Greater Double-collared Sunbird. Its metallic green and red are beautiful to see shining in the sun.

I try to showcase a Cape Robin-chat whenever I can for these shy birds with their pale orange throats and upper breasts along with the predominant white eyebrow (supercilium) blend in surprisingly well with their environment. I often have to home in on their songs before finding them perched on a branch.

Every year we are visited briefly by a small flock of Crowned Hoopoes combing their way through the area. Their yellow eyes and orangey-red beaks stand out for me.

The Southern Boubou is always a welcome visitor, although I tend to see more of them during the winter than in summer. The warm buff wash on its belly looks attractive to me.

I hear at least one Knysna Turaco almost daily yet do not often see them for they are well camouflaged. Their beauty is simply outstanding.

A BIRD FEEDER IN HOUT BAY

It is fun watching birds in someone else’s garden and what better way to do so than keeping an eye on the local bird feeder. Among the first visitors to arrive in this Hout Bay garden was a Southern Boubou (Laniarius ferrugineus), a familiar visitor in my own garden. There it tends to seek out anything meaty or fruity, so I was surprised to see this one tucking into the seeds:

Another familiar bird arrived, a Cape Robin-Chat (Cossypha caffra). These are beloved garden birds that eat fruit, insects and scraps of any kind. This one was combing the lawn for dried meal worms – something I have never provided for the birds in my garden:

Yet another familiar bird arrived with a loud fluttering of its wings – one of a pair of Speckled Pigeons (Columba guinea). These birds are ubiquitous over the whole country, so their presence was no surprise:

Ah, not only birds visited this bird feeder. The mystery of why the cut apples disappear so quickly was solved with the sighting of this Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in the act. These are not indigenous, having been imported by Cecil John Rhodes during the 19^th century:

Mmm … there was another non-avian contender for the fallen seed below the feeder. Such a regular visitor in fact that it has made a getaway tunnel among the plants growing next to the fence. This is a Four-striped Grass Mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio):

Try as I might, I ended having to photograph these delightful visitors through the window. What an absolute delight it was to watch small groups of Swee Waxbills (Coccopygia melanotis) fluttering down from the branches to cluster around the feeder. They never seemed to be still and would fly off at a moment’s notice leaving their high-pitched ‘swee-swee’ contact call in their wake:

Now, a bonus picture that brought great joy to the pre-schooler who had made this elaborate feeder – unidentified visitors (taken through a window with a cell phone) investigating the seed therein at last!

Proof indeed that this carnival-like contraption was also attractive to birds.

JULY 2022 GARDEN BIRDS

Even though I have been extraordinarily busy this month, it has been a particularly satisfying one in terms of bird visiting our garden. One of the loveliest surprises was hearing the beautiful burbling sounds of a Burchell’s Coucal from deep within the foliage: I have yet to see it, but it has clearly made its presence known. Very few African Green Pigeons are left; most have probably sought an easy source of food elsewhere as the figs on the Natal fig tree have almost come to an end. The Olive Thrushes remain welcome visitors to the feeding tray, although a pair of them spend a lot of time chasing each other around the garden – a form of courting? Certainly the weavers think that spring is around the corner and are looking more beautiful every day. The very large flocks of Red-winged Starlings have also diminished along with the plentiful supply of fruit: they have turned their attention to the flowers of the Erythrina caffra. Close to that is an Ironwood in which a pair of Hadeda Ibises are building a nest in the same fork of branches where they successfully reared two chicks last season – they are easy to keep an eye on!

Speaking of eyes. How easily our eyes can deceive us: I was watching the Hadedas bringing in large sticks to add to their nest when I noticed a Laughing Dove preening itself on a branch of the Erythrina caffra nearby. It was only when I looked through my camera lens that I realised (it was high up in the tree) that I was actually looking at an African Hoopoe. They are not common visitors, so I am delighted to show off this one:

The Southern Boubou has been a regular visitor, often coming out into the open once the other birds have had their fill and left the feeding area. It has been interesting to observe how the Olive Thrushes quickly give way to the Boubou whenever it appears:

About eight Red-necked Spurfowl call around almost daily now too to peck at the fallen seed. They are very skittish around humans, so I tend to photograph them from my upstairs bedroom window:

For two days in a row we observed a pair of Trumpeter Hornbills. This is the only usable photograph I managed to get as they tended to perch too high up for me or were obscured by branches:

Also perching high up was this Streakyheaded Seedeater, which was fun to photograph away from the feeder for a change:

Lastly for this month, I heard the characteristic call of a Greyheaded Bush Shrike a few days ago and hunted all over the garden for it. These very attractive looking birds have an annoying habit of hiding in the foliage too, so this rather startled view of it was all I managed to get before it flew off:

My bird list for this month:

African Green Pigeon
African Hoopoe
Amethyst Sunbird
Black-collared Barbet
Black-eyed (Dark-capped) Bulbul
Black-headed Oriole
Bronze Manikin
Burchell’s Coucal
Cape Crow
Cape Robin-Chat
Cape Turtle Dove
Cape Wagtail
Cape Weaver
Cape White-eye
Cattle Egret
Common Fiscal
Common Starling
Fork-tailed Drongo
Greater Double-collared Sunbird
Green Woodhoopoe
Grey-headed Bush Shrike
Grey-headed Sparrow
Hadeda Ibis
Knysna Turaco
Laughing Dove
Olive Thrush
Pied Crow
Pintailed Whydah
Red-eyed Dove
Red-necked Spurfowl
Red-winged Starling
Sombre Bulbul (Greenbul)
Southern Boubou
Southern Masked Weaver
Speckled Mousebird
Speckled Pigeon
Spectacled Weaver
Streaky-headed Seedeater
Trumpeter Hornbill
Village Weaver