Africa Related Topics 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 17, 2022
Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park is the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa – it was established in 1895. It is thus much older than the Hold Steady song “ Heavy Covenant “, which was only released in 2021. The quality is similar though (on a highly abstract level).
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 24, 2022
But for now, I still have the hornbills I saw in South Africa a few years ago. “I’ll It is now almost exactly two years that I last was outside of China. At some point, my stock of memories of birds seen outside of China will be used up, I am afraid.
10,000 Birds
MAY 16, 2022
St Lucia is a small town on the Southeastern coast of South Africa. One of the most interesting aspects of watching birds in Africa is to see different members of bird families that I already know from China.
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?
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 23, 2021
One in November 2018 included a one-day birding trip in the Drakensberg area, a mountain range in the border area between South Africa and Lesotho. Originally restricted to Africa, it is now also well-established in parts of Europe and South Africa.
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 23, 2023
The Purple-crested Turaco is the national bird of Eswatini, which given that this country is the last absolute monarchy in Africa and the country with the world’s highest HIV prevalence is probably not much of an honor.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 22, 2022
Ndumo Game Reserve lies in the Easternmost part of South Africa, close to the border of Mozambique and Eswatini. It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them.
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 26, 2023
That is why I am so pleased to see the new “Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide” being illustrated with nearly 1400 colour photographs of the 45 species of gulls found in the Western Palearctic.
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
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
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
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.
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
JULY 11, 2013
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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 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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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.
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
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 14, 2022
Birdlife South Africa has previously done two of these types of trips before, previously called Flock to Sea – Namibia in 2013 and Flock to Nowhere in 2017, in partnership with MSC Cruises. Trips Africa albatrosses pelagic South Africa
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
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