Bird ringing in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal
From 9-21 October 2019 I helped Rute catch and ring birds in Pietermaritzburg. The project was for studying the effect of moulting feathers on selection. The target species were Southern Red bishops, Red-collared Widows, and Fan-tailed Widows. 39 species and over 200 birds were caught including 21 recaptures. The “oldest” recaptures were 2 Levaillant’s Cisticola that had both been ringed at Cedara in 2015.
Many Fan-tailed Widows were caught at Cedara and Darvill. The males were moulting into breeding plumage, and were at different stages as shown below.
Several Red-collared Widows were caught at Darvill and Cedara, males also being in transitional plumage. Two males were photographed on the same day at Victoria Golf Estate – male 1 was mostly brownish with a growing tail, while male 2 had a collar developing as well as some black feathers on the underparts.
Table. Birds ringed and retrapped (not including data from other ringers at same sessions)
| Species | Latin | Cedara | Darvill | Golf | Hilton |
| Blacksmith Lapwing | Vanellus armatus | 1 | |||
| Red-eyed Dove | Streptopelia semitorquata | 1 | |||
| Laughing Dove | Streptopelia senegalensis | 1 | |||
| Lesser Honeyguide | Indicator minor | 1 | |||
| Lesser Striped Swallow | Hirundo abyssinica | 1 | |||
| Brown-throated Martin | Riparia paludicola | 1 | |||
| Southern Black Tit | Parus niger | 1 | |||
| Dark-capped Bulbul | Pycnonotus tricolor | 1 | |||
| Sombre Greenbul | Andropadus importunus | 1 | |||
| African Stonechat | Saxicola torquatus | 1 | |||
| Cape Robin-Chat | Cossypha caffra | 1 | 1 | ||
| Lesser Swamp-Warbler | Acrocephalus gracilirostris | 1 | |||
| African Reed-Warbler | Acrocephalus baeticatus | 5 | 2 | ||
| Little Rush-Warbler | Bradypterus baboecala | 4 | |||
| Levaillant’s Cisticola | Cisticola tinniens | 14 | 1 | ||
| Croaking Cisticola | Cisticola natalensis | 1 | |||
| Dark-capped Yellow Warbler | Chloropeta natalensis | 1 | 1 | ||
| Southern Double-collared Sunbird | Cinnyris chalybeus | 1 | |||
| White-bellied Sunbird | Cinnyris talatala | 1 | |||
| Olive Sunbird | Cyanomitra olivacea | 1 | |||
| Amethyst Sunbird | Chalcomitra amethystina | 1 | |||
| Lesser Masked-Weaver | Ploceus intermedius | 4 | |||
| Village Weaver | Ploceus cucullatus | 14 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Cape Weaver | Ploceus capensis | 3 | |||
| Thick-billed Weaver | Amblyospiza albifrons | 2 | |||
| Red-billed Quelea | Quelea quelea | 6 | 2 | ||
| Red-headed Quelea | Quelea erythrops | 1 | |||
| Southern Red Bishop | Euplectes orix | 7 | 3 | ||
| Red-collared Widowbird | Euplectes ardens | 9 | 19 | ||
| Fan-tailed Widowbird | Euplectes axillaris | 59 | 29 | ||
| Bronze Mannikin | Spermestes cucullatus | 2 | 1 | ||
| Red-backed Mannikin | Spermestes bicolor | 3 | |||
| Common Waxbill | Estrilda astrild | 1 | |||
| Pin-tailed Whydah | Vidua macroura | 3 | |||
| Cape Canary | Serinus canicollis | 1 | |||
| Olive Thrush | Turdus olivaceus | 2 | |||
| Cape White-eye | Zosterops virens | 2 | 4 | ||
| Number of sessions | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Totals (ringed+retrapped) | 133 | 70 | 23 | 9 |
Thanks to Karen and Ebby for help with ringing!
| If you would like to ring colourful birds in KwaZulu-Natal, book a trip with Dieter at Birds4Africa! |
