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A sad reminder of what is ultimately behind the birds you find in cages: birds being taken from the wild and subjected to horrible stress and, often, death. Even birds that were bred in captivity are still not domesticated, have wild instincts, and are not meant to live in cages. Asides MORE
It is now treated as its own species, confined to Africa and the tip of Arabia (Black Kites also migrate here from Europe and Asia). Birds kites South Africa Last weekend I finally caved and bought a new laptop to replace the one that swan-dived off my bed last November. My desktop simply can’t cope with the number and size of images that modern digital cameras produce, and this meant that I was finally able to start sorting through my many photos I took on my trip. MORE
I’ve not made spectacular progress writing up my trip to Africa earlier this year, so perhaps I should get on that. So instead let’s talk about South Africa’s best kept birding secret (at least outside of the country) Wakkerstroom. The area also had some star finds, including South Africa’s national bird and one of the finest-looking birds in the world, the Blue Crane , and the exceptional Yellow-breasted Pipit. Birding South Africa MORE
Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Definitely my personal favorite of Africa’s pink birds is the delicate Pink-throated Twinspot. Pink-backed Pelicans build untidy stick nests in tall trees usually near waterbodies but in tropical parts of Africa they even nest in villages and along roadways, as long as they are not persecuted. MORE
While much of East Africa is deforested, Uganda retains its trees, particularly in places like Bwindi Inpenetrable and Kibale National Parks, two of the largest and most important expanses of forest in the region. Birding Birds Africa Uganda MORE
After a very long day of 7 hours of driving, 11 hours flying and then 9 hours more driving, we have arrived at our temporary home here in South Africa. Daily park fees are such that we opted for the annual “Wild Card” that is good not only for Kruger, but nearly every park in South Africa. In the same first day plus a couple of hours, my Africa bird count is at 66 species. Trips Kruger National Park South Africa The Little Big Year MORE
In Africa. go on to say that they believe the birds colonized South America from Africa and suggest that the most plausible explanation for this is that the birds traveled west across the Atlantic on “rafts” — huge floating tangles of debris often invoked to explain trans-Atlantic mammal dispersal events. But an out-of-Africa hypothesis certainly gives us more to ponder as we regard possible relationships with the African turacos and other clades. MORE
Apparently it isn't the first time the King has been shooting big game in Africa, or elsewhere (Apparently he killed a bear in Russia a few years ago too). africa spain blood sport hunting elephantsFrom the Wildlife Extra News. April 2012. King Juan Carlos of Spain, Honorary President of WWF Spain, is recovering in hospital after breaking his hip in Botswana where he was on an elephant hunt. MORE
Starting in the mid-1990s, there was a “where to watch birds in…” series of five site guides written by Nigel Wheatley and covering South America (1994), Africa (1995), Asia (1996), Europe & Russia (2000) and Central America & the Caribbean (2001). As you probably know how mad about Africa I am, it comes as no surprise that I was head over heels when I spotted an announcement of a new Birder’s Guide to Africa. Is there a birder who doesn’t want to bird Africa? MORE
ivory africa military poaching elephants endangered speciesAfrican elephants being poached in unprecedented numbers. They are disappearing from the continent as the poachers become increasingly militarized. Full story here at the New York Times. MORE
However Africa has more long tailed species than any other region, and this blog post celebrates a few of these fabulous birds. Africa’s impressive Long-tailed Widowbird by Adam Riley. Males of this large passerine sport a tail of over 16 inches (more than double their body length) that is proudly displayed to the dull females of the species in a spectacular, heavy and slow flapping aerial display, low over the grasslands of South and East Africa. MORE
In his book The Birder’s Guide to Africa (3), Michael Mills noted not only differences in plumage (has white on a folded wing), but also voice and habitat choice, suggesting that the Albertine ssp. nehrkorni spreading all the way to West Africa). Get a copy of the Birds of East Africa (2004) by Stevenson and Fanshawe – definitely the best guide for the region. 3 The Birder’s Guide to Africa by Michael Mills. Trips Africa east Africa endemics Rwanda MORE
With no real chance of any internet connection to report whatever new birds I am able to find, I am scheduling this photo essay featuring a few of my favorite pictures from Kruger National Park, South Africa. Trips Kruger National Park Little Big Year South AfricaI am out on an off shore boat trip, from Seattle, north thru the San Juan Islands, and if the weather permits, up into the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. MORE
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Africa’s famous Big Five , but do you know there is also an equally fascinating Little Five ? Africa is famous for its large, charismatic mammals, and the Big Five epitomize the most sought-after of these fantastic beasts. Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant. MORE
Under that impossibly blue sky of Africa. Everything around you is new and the World is exciting again, or was it simply Africa? I did use the word “Africa” too many times. Trips Africa Botswana city birdsGaborone, Botswana; June 1999. Marvellous orange-pink sunrise high over the Indian Ocean… Then, landing on a small airport at Gaborone, Botswana. Impossibly bright blue sky. Billboards advertising safari operators in the north of the country. MORE
This time we travel to Africa, or to narrow it further, to the Afrotropical region (since the north of the continent avifaunally belongs to the Palearctic). SERVIR Africa Workshop. Finally, South Africa has three 400+ hotspots, namely 1 Mkhuze Game Reserve 458 sp. MORE
More than two tons of illegal ivory have been seized and more than 100 people have been arrested in the largest international operation targeting wildlife crime across Eastern Africa, the Kenya Wildlife Service and INTERPOL announced today. Tags: ivory wildlife trafficking africa elephants From the Environment News Service. MORE
Tiny satellite tracking tags allowed scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology to track five cuckoos on their 5,000 km migration to Africa. The birds have dispersed rather widely: Four of the birds have already crossed the Sahara; two are in southern Chad, one is in northern Nigeria and the fourth one is in Burkina Faso. One cuckoo is lagging slightly behind the rest and has made it as far as Morocco. Birds, technology, and science together are simply fascinating. Asides MORE
A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg. This game reserve has 900 elephants – the second largest population in South Africa, after the Kruger National Park with 13,000. Trips Mammals South Africa MORE
The history of Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa is a slightly unusual one. It is a good place for South African birders, as several species are found here and nowhere else in South Africa, and it holds a small number of endemics that it shares with the Mozambique lowlands. The park did have a pack of African Wild Dogs, or Painted Wolves, the species I had gone to Africa to see. Birding Lion South Africa MORE
Cockatoos aren’t even from Africa, of course, but we’ve got better things to do than ponder the provenance of a caged parrot – like open this bottle. Birding Food Reviews Birds and Booze cockatoos South Africa summer wine MORE
For several years I lived and birded in the south of Africa , and still have my battered second edition (1997) of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa, the most trusted local field guide. Before that, while you all know what South Africa is, what exactly is Southern Africa? MORE
An operation across five Africa countries over weekend, targeting wildlife crime has led to arrest of almost 60 people and seizure of one ton of illegal elephant ivory, Interpol has reported. Tags: wildlife crime ivory wildlife trafficking africa elephants Just five days ago. The one-day sweep, code-named Operation Baba, targeted more than 50 locations, including local ivory markets, airports, border crossings and smuggling points, international policying body said. MORE
animal experimentation animal research primates south africaWarning! This is just horrible and sick, sick, sick. It's at a vomit level with me. From news24.com. Johannesburg - A Bloemfontein man received a criminal record on Friday for a "backyard experiment" on a pregnant monkey, the NSPCA said. The NSPCA in November 2008 charged Jordaan for his "merciless treatment" of a heavily pregnant vervet monkey. He had severed her spinal cord to paralyse her for a "backyard experiment. MORE
They occur in three biogeographic regions; the Neotropic, Afrotropic and Indo-Malaya ecozones, basically tropical South and Central America, Africa south of the Sahara and tropical Asia. In Asia, their 30 barbet species are placed into their own family Megalaimidae , and finally in Africa, we have 42 species in the family Lybiidae , the topic of this blogpost. In Africa, barbets occur throughout the continent from the tip of the Cape Peninsula to the fringes of the Sahara desert. MORE
My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! In this post, I’d like to focus on a small selection of South Africa’s special endemic birds. The Cape Rockjumper (here a female) is best sought at Rooiels, on the east coast of South Africa, north of Cape Town. A plethora of colorful and busy sunbirds occur in South Africa, many of them filling niche’s occupied by hummingbirds in the New World. South Africa’s national bird is the Blue Crane. MORE
Forget the old news, Rwanda of today is one of Africa’s safest, cleanest and most stable countries. Christian Boix left his native Spain to become an ornithologist at the University of Cape Town and a tour guide for Tropical Birding, specialising in new destinations throughout Africa. Keith Barnes has birded Africa intensively for 30 years and has led tours on the continent for the last 15 years, after creating the company Tropical Birding. MORE
And so we are out of Africa, or South Africa at least. Having done the lower end of South Africa, I truly long to get to see the parts farther north. Sunbirds, are in my interpretation, the hummingbirds of South Africa. The final destination for our time in South Africa, was the Rondevlei Nature Reserve. South Africa has certainly brought this clearly into focus. South Africa – 219 species. MORE
I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. But it is in Africa that the group reaches its most diverse, from the enormous Eland to the diminutive Suni, and a whole range of body types in between. Mammals antelope South Africa MORE
The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. They diverged at approximately the same time as the rockjumpers (two quite unique bird species endemic to Southern Africa and now in their own family), and as a result for a while were even placed in the same family. MORE
All the inhabited continents except Africa have experienced bird extinctions; however the 2012 update of the IUCN Red List shows a startling, but not altogether unexpected, trend in that more and more of our bird species are facing extinction. Even in Africa, where birds have co-inhabited the landscape with man since the evolution of our species, more and more bird species are joining the ranks of the threatened. Birds Conservation Africa endangered birds MORE
Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. This blogpost discusses and illustrates Africa’s stork species, with Shoebill added as a bonus or honorary stork! It is predominantly a wetland bird and most productive larger wetlands and lakes of Africa will support a population of these large, hulking birds that hang around the shallows searching for fish, waterbird nestlings and anything else remotely edible. MORE
What happens when you put a naturalist in a kayak, adrift in Africa? I have read canoeing articles from Africa and knew that the Nile Crocodile ( Crocodilus niloticus ) pays no attention to the boat and, in theory, as long as I’m inside I’m safe. Birding Africa Botswana canoeing safar MORE
Central Africa has one of those birds. Sure, the Pearl of Africa has so much more for visitors to enjoy, including many of the most cherished mammal species on the planet, but the Shoebill seems to capture the imaginations of birders and non-birders alike. MORE
Several times, the answer was “Africa”, which, being a continent and not a country, I excluded from the statistics, but will further comment below. 4%: Mexico, West Papua (Indonesia), New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya. Not surprisingly, ten of these 19 countries are in the Americas, but what does surprise me, there are just 4 in Africa and just 1 in Asia (2 if you count Indonesia). Africa is a huge continent with varied landscapes and rich biodiversity. MORE
Phoebe Snetsinger had that experience while birding East Africa for the first time and seeing as many birds as she did in the US for the previous 50 years.). In “Where to Watch Birds in Africa”, Nigel Wheatley says: “In terms of its size, Uganda is the richest country for birds in Africa.” Trips Africa endemics Uganda MORE
The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. In Africa, our bee-eaters occur from the southern tip of the continent right through to the far north, occupying an incredible range of habitats and niches, from the interior of the deepest rainforests of the Congo to the arid steppes of the Sahel. Birds Africa Bee-eaters Meropidae MORE
Trafficking in ivory and game meat has become one of the most lucrative illegal trades in Africa due to rising demand in Asia, experts said on Friday. "In Tags: wildlife crime ivory africa trafficking asia elephants Sad, sad, sad. Why doesn't this greed ever end? Ivory means NOTHING. It's just a material. There is no magic, no power, NOTHING to it. And even with all the public education and media attention, there is just no abatement in demand. It's just so frustrating! MORE
Destinations Africa Birding Tourism Uganda10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. MORE
And so, I went on the American Birding Association Safari to South Africa. It was the right time of year, October–spring in South Africa, the right price, and the right people—president of the American Birding Association Jeff Gordon, energetic emissaries George Armistead and Liz Gordon, and, very importantly, fellow 10,000 Birds beat writer Adam Riley and the staff of Rockjumper, who masterfully organized and guided the ABA Safari. Trips ABA South Africa MORE
I have to admit, I didn’t think it could when I left for Africa last year. I had a copy of Sasol’s eBirds of Southern Africa on my iPhone (and iPad), but I had bought it to brush up on my African birds in my spare time, like on bus trips or particularly long meetings. I had planned to buy a new copy of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa when I arrived in Cape Town, to replace my 13 year old copy (which I brought as well). MORE
Mkuze Game Reserve is in the Eastern part of South Africa, about 5 hours away from Johannesburg, and one of the best places I have ever been to for bird photography. More birds of South Africa here. Birding Africa Mkuze South Africa MORE
Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with big game and fierce predators! A question I am frequently asked by birders and wildlife enthusiasts is: “ if I only visit Africa once, where should I go ?” Destinations africa tanzani MORE
Africa Related Topics 10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
For several years I lived and birded in the south of Africa , and still have my battered second edition (1997) of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa, the most trusted local field guide. Before that, while you all know what South Africa is, what exactly is Southern Africa?
Critter News
SEPTEMBER 5, 2012
ivory africa military poaching elephants endangered speciesAfrican elephants being poached in unprecedented numbers. They are disappearing from the continent as the poachers become increasingly militarized. Full story here at the New York Times.
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 14, 2021
This time we travel to Africa, or to narrow it further, to the Afrotropical region (since the north of the continent avifaunally belongs to the Palearctic). SERVIR Africa Workshop. Finally, South Africa has three 400+ hotspots, namely 1 Mkhuze Game Reserve 458 sp.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 18, 2016
Phoebe Snetsinger had that experience while birding East Africa for the first time and seeing as many birds as she did in the US for the previous 50 years.). In “Where to Watch Birds in Africa”, Nigel Wheatley says: “In terms of its size, Uganda is the richest country for birds in Africa.” Trips Africa endemics Uganda
10,000 Birds
JUNE 11, 2015
Under that impossibly blue sky of Africa. Everything around you is new and the World is exciting again, or was it simply Africa? I did use the word “Africa” too many times. Trips Africa Botswana city birdsGaborone, Botswana; June 1999. Marvellous orange-pink sunrise high over the Indian Ocean… Then, landing on a small airport at Gaborone, Botswana. Impossibly bright blue sky. Billboards advertising safari operators in the north of the country.
Critter News
DECEMBER 3, 2009
More than two tons of illegal ivory have been seized and more than 100 people have been arrested in the largest international operation targeting wildlife crime across Eastern Africa, the Kenya Wildlife Service and INTERPOL announced today. Tags: ivory wildlife trafficking africa elephants From the Environment News Service.
10,000 Birds
MAY 12, 2013
Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Definitely my personal favorite of Africa’s pink birds is the delicate Pink-throated Twinspot. Pink-backed Pelicans build untidy stick nests in tall trees usually near waterbodies but in tropical parts of Africa they even nest in villages and along roadways, as long as they are not persecuted.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 14, 2012
The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. In Africa, our bee-eaters occur from the southern tip of the continent right through to the far north, occupying an incredible range of habitats and niches, from the interior of the deepest rainforests of the Congo to the arid steppes of the Sahel. Birds Africa Bee-eaters Meropidae
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 10, 2012
The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. They diverged at approximately the same time as the rockjumpers (two quite unique bird species endemic to Southern Africa and now in their own family), and as a result for a while were even placed in the same family.
10,000 Birds
JULY 15, 2015
The history of Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa is a slightly unusual one. It is a good place for South African birders, as several species are found here and nowhere else in South Africa, and it holds a small number of endemics that it shares with the Mozambique lowlands. The park did have a pack of African Wild Dogs, or Painted Wolves, the species I had gone to Africa to see. Birding Lion South Africa
Critter News
DECEMBER 13, 2010
animal experimentation animal research primates south africaWarning! This is just horrible and sick, sick, sick. It's at a vomit level with me. From news24.com. Johannesburg - A Bloemfontein man received a criminal record on Friday for a "backyard experiment" on a pregnant monkey, the NSPCA said. The NSPCA in November 2008 charged Jordaan for his "merciless treatment" of a heavily pregnant vervet monkey. He had severed her spinal cord to paralyse her for a "backyard experiment.
10,000 Birds
JULY 10, 2012
All the inhabited continents except Africa have experienced bird extinctions; however the 2012 update of the IUCN Red List shows a startling, but not altogether unexpected, trend in that more and more of our bird species are facing extinction. Even in Africa, where birds have co-inhabited the landscape with man since the evolution of our species, more and more bird species are joining the ranks of the threatened. Birds Conservation Africa endangered birds
10,000 Birds
MAY 8, 2012
Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. This blogpost discusses and illustrates Africa’s stork species, with Shoebill added as a bonus or honorary stork! It is predominantly a wetland bird and most productive larger wetlands and lakes of Africa will support a population of these large, hulking birds that hang around the shallows searching for fish, waterbird nestlings and anything else remotely edible.
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 12, 2017
Starting in the mid-1990s, there was a “where to watch birds in…” series of five site guides written by Nigel Wheatley and covering South America (1994), Africa (1995), Asia (1996), Europe & Russia (2000) and Central America & the Caribbean (2001). As you probably know how mad about Africa I am, it comes as no surprise that I was head over heels when I spotted an announcement of a new Birder’s Guide to Africa. Is there a birder who doesn’t want to bird Africa?
10,000 Birds
JUNE 20, 2018
And so we are out of Africa, or South Africa at least. Having done the lower end of South Africa, I truly long to get to see the parts farther north. Sunbirds, are in my interpretation, the hummingbirds of South Africa. The final destination for our time in South Africa, was the Rondevlei Nature Reserve. South Africa has certainly brought this clearly into focus. South Africa – 219 species.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 10, 2012
They occur in three biogeographic regions; the Neotropic, Afrotropic and Indo-Malaya ecozones, basically tropical South and Central America, Africa south of the Sahara and tropical Asia. In Asia, their 30 barbet species are placed into their own family Megalaimidae , and finally in Africa, we have 42 species in the family Lybiidae , the topic of this blogpost. In Africa, barbets occur throughout the continent from the tip of the Cape Peninsula to the fringes of the Sahara desert.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 13, 2011
My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! In this post, I’d like to focus on a small selection of South Africa’s special endemic birds. The Cape Rockjumper (here a female) is best sought at Rooiels, on the east coast of South Africa, north of Cape Town. A plethora of colorful and busy sunbirds occur in South Africa, many of them filling niche’s occupied by hummingbirds in the New World. South Africa’s national bird is the Blue Crane.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 8, 2015
It is now treated as its own species, confined to Africa and the tip of Arabia (Black Kites also migrate here from Europe and Asia). Birds kites South Africa Last weekend I finally caved and bought a new laptop to replace the one that swan-dived off my bed last November. My desktop simply can’t cope with the number and size of images that modern digital cameras produce, and this meant that I was finally able to start sorting through my many photos I took on my trip.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 29, 2015
I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. But it is in Africa that the group reaches its most diverse, from the enormous Eland to the diminutive Suni, and a whole range of body types in between. Mammals antelope South Africa
Critter News
JULY 7, 2009
Trafficking in ivory and game meat has become one of the most lucrative illegal trades in Africa due to rising demand in Asia, experts said on Friday. "In Tags: wildlife crime ivory africa trafficking asia elephants Sad, sad, sad. Why doesn't this greed ever end? Ivory means NOTHING. It's just a material. There is no magic, no power, NOTHING to it. And even with all the public education and media attention, there is just no abatement in demand. It's just so frustrating!
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 4, 2014
And so, I went on the American Birding Association Safari to South Africa. It was the right time of year, October–spring in South Africa, the right price, and the right people—president of the American Birding Association Jeff Gordon, energetic emissaries George Armistead and Liz Gordon, and, very importantly, fellow 10,000 Birds beat writer Adam Riley and the staff of Rockjumper, who masterfully organized and guided the ABA Safari. Trips ABA South Africa
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 21, 2015
I’ve not made spectacular progress writing up my trip to Africa earlier this year, so perhaps I should get on that. So instead let’s talk about South Africa’s best kept birding secret (at least outside of the country) Wakkerstroom. The area also had some star finds, including South Africa’s national bird and one of the finest-looking birds in the world, the Blue Crane , and the exceptional Yellow-breasted Pipit. Birding South Africa
Critter News
NOVEMBER 22, 2008
An operation across five Africa countries over weekend, targeting wildlife crime has led to arrest of almost 60 people and seizure of one ton of illegal elephant ivory, Interpol has reported. Tags: wildlife crime ivory wildlife trafficking africa elephants Just five days ago. The one-day sweep, code-named Operation Baba, targeted more than 50 locations, including local ivory markets, airports, border crossings and smuggling points, international policying body said.
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 11, 2011
Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with big game and fierce predators! A question I am frequently asked by birders and wildlife enthusiasts is: “ if I only visit Africa once, where should I go ?” Destinations africa tanzani
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 20, 2016
While much of East Africa is deforested, Uganda retains its trees, particularly in places like Bwindi Inpenetrable and Kibale National Parks, two of the largest and most important expanses of forest in the region. Birding Birds Africa Uganda
10,000 Birds
MAY 28, 2018
After a very long day of 7 hours of driving, 11 hours flying and then 9 hours more driving, we have arrived at our temporary home here in South Africa. Daily park fees are such that we opted for the annual “Wild Card” that is good not only for Kruger, but nearly every park in South Africa. In the same first day plus a couple of hours, my Africa bird count is at 66 species. Trips Kruger National Park South Africa The Little Big Year
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 11, 2012
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Africa’s famous Big Five , but do you know there is also an equally fascinating Little Five ? Africa is famous for its large, charismatic mammals, and the Big Five epitomize the most sought-after of these fantastic beasts. Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 8, 2018
With no real chance of any internet connection to report whatever new birds I am able to find, I am scheduling this photo essay featuring a few of my favorite pictures from Kruger National Park, South Africa. Trips Kruger National Park Little Big Year South AfricaI am out on an off shore boat trip, from Seattle, north thru the San Juan Islands, and if the weather permits, up into the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada.
10,000 Birds
MARCH 25, 2015
I have to admit, I didn’t think it could when I left for Africa last year. I had a copy of Sasol’s eBirds of Southern Africa on my iPhone (and iPad), but I had bought it to brush up on my African birds in my spare time, like on bus trips or particularly long meetings. I had planned to buy a new copy of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa when I arrived in Cape Town, to replace my 13 year old copy (which I brought as well).
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 13, 2011
In Africa. go on to say that they believe the birds colonized South America from Africa and suggest that the most plausible explanation for this is that the birds traveled west across the Atlantic on “rafts” — huge floating tangles of debris often invoked to explain trans-Atlantic mammal dispersal events. But an out-of-Africa hypothesis certainly gives us more to ponder as we regard possible relationships with the African turacos and other clades.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 13, 2011
A sad reminder of what is ultimately behind the birds you find in cages: birds being taken from the wild and subjected to horrible stress and, often, death. Even birds that were bred in captivity are still not domesticated, have wild instincts, and are not meant to live in cages. Asides
10,000 Birds
APRIL 9, 2013
However Africa has more long tailed species than any other region, and this blog post celebrates a few of these fabulous birds. Africa’s impressive Long-tailed Widowbird by Adam Riley. Males of this large passerine sport a tail of over 16 inches (more than double their body length) that is proudly displayed to the dull females of the species in a spectacular, heavy and slow flapping aerial display, low over the grasslands of South and East Africa.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 19, 2011
Tiny satellite tracking tags allowed scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology to track five cuckoos on their 5,000 km migration to Africa. The birds have dispersed rather widely: Four of the birds have already crossed the Sahara; two are in southern Chad, one is in northern Nigeria and the fourth one is in Burkina Faso. One cuckoo is lagging slightly behind the rest and has made it as far as Morocco. Birds, technology, and science together are simply fascinating. Asides
10,000 Birds
MARCH 19, 2020
Mkuze Game Reserve is in the Eastern part of South Africa, about 5 hours away from Johannesburg, and one of the best places I have ever been to for bird photography. More birds of South Africa here. Birding Africa Mkuze South Africa
Critter News
APRIL 20, 2012
Apparently it isn't the first time the King has been shooting big game in Africa, or elsewhere (Apparently he killed a bear in Russia a few years ago too). africa spain blood sport hunting elephantsFrom the Wildlife Extra News. April 2012. King Juan Carlos of Spain, Honorary President of WWF Spain, is recovering in hospital after breaking his hip in Botswana where he was on an elephant hunt.
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Forget the old news, Rwanda of today is one of Africa’s safest, cleanest and most stable countries. Christian Boix left his native Spain to become an ornithologist at the University of Cape Town and a tour guide for Tropical Birding, specialising in new destinations throughout Africa. Keith Barnes has birded Africa intensively for 30 years and has led tours on the continent for the last 15 years, after creating the company Tropical Birding.
10,000 Birds
JUNE 21, 2018
In his book The Birder’s Guide to Africa (3), Michael Mills noted not only differences in plumage (has white on a folded wing), but also voice and habitat choice, suggesting that the Albertine ssp. nehrkorni spreading all the way to West Africa). Get a copy of the Birds of East Africa (2004) by Stevenson and Fanshawe – definitely the best guide for the region. 3 The Birder’s Guide to Africa by Michael Mills. Trips Africa east Africa endemics Rwanda
Critter News
FEBRUARY 1, 2010
Tags: ivory africa sierra leone poaching elephants
10,000 Birds
APRIL 25, 2019
Several times, the answer was “Africa”, which, being a continent and not a country, I excluded from the statistics, but will further comment below. 4%: Mexico, West Papua (Indonesia), New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya. Not surprisingly, ten of these 19 countries are in the Americas, but what does surprise me, there are just 4 in Africa and just 1 in Asia (2 if you count Indonesia). Africa is a huge continent with varied landscapes and rich biodiversity.
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 26, 2019
Central Africa has one of those birds. Sure, the Pearl of Africa has so much more for visitors to enjoy, including many of the most cherished mammal species on the planet, but the Shoebill seems to capture the imaginations of birders and non-birders alike.
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 22, 2021
Destinations Africa Birding Tourism Uganda10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic.
10,000 Birds
JUNE 4, 2020
What happens when you put a naturalist in a kayak, adrift in Africa? I have read canoeing articles from Africa and knew that the Nile Crocodile ( Crocodilus niloticus ) pays no attention to the boat and, in theory, as long as I’m inside I’m safe. Birding Africa Botswana canoeing safar
10,000 Birds
JUNE 5, 2020
Cockatoos aren’t even from Africa, of course, but we’ve got better things to do than ponder the provenance of a caged parrot – like open this bottle. Birding Food Reviews Birds and Booze cockatoos South Africa summer wine
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