Western Cape endemics, May-June 2021
It was raining when I met my bird photographer guest (from Germany) at Cape Town International Airport on 15 May. The aim was to photograph as many south...
Category: bird news
Birding routes in the Western Cape
Birding routes have become well established in South Africa, especially in the Western Cape. Many of these routes have good information online. Some of t...
Rondevlei birds
Rondevlei has five bird hides and two look-out towers, making it an excellent site for bird watching and photography. After entering Rondevlei, a path ta...
Vineyard birds
Vineyard birds Vineyards are generally monocultures and thus may not attract too many bird species, although the grapes do attract fruit eaters. In South...
Birds bathing at Jack Muller Park
A storm pipe running into a stream at Jack Muller Park, Bellville, Cape Town, provided two points where local birds could bathe (15 Sept 2020). Fi...
Gymnogene predation
Gymnogenes (African Harrier-Hawks) have remarkable adaptations to find prey. Their legs can bend partly backwards to get their claws into difficult to reach cre...
Starlings and syringas
The leaves, berries, and wood of the syringa tree (or Persian Lilac) Melia azedarach are poisonous to mammals (including humans). It is found naturally i...
Strandfontein during lockdown
Nature reserves in Cape Town opened on 17 July, during lockdown level 3, so we visited Strandfontein the next afternoon to see and enjoy some birds! It was grea...
Dust bathing in birds
Why birds dust bathe Dust, or sand, bathing, helps birds in maintaining their plumage in good condition. The dust absorbs excess oil on the feathers to prevent ...
African bird atlasses
Several bird atlasses have been published that include maps showing absence/presence in grids, allowing accurate distributions to be mapped. The map below shows...