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Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa

10,000 Birds

The history of Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa is a slightly unusual one. But it wasn’t founded to serve as a refuge for human refugees, but animal ones, specifically elephants. And elephants are always overwhelming anyway. Tembe Elephant Park is a mosaic of savannah and forest.

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Evidence of earlier humans in Madagascar is unconvincing but interesting

10,000 Birds

There is a virtual flock of new and interesting bird science news all of the sudden, including the rediscovery of an extinct Bahama Nuthatch. One of those animals was the Giant Elephant Bird (including, but not limited to, Aepyornis maximus ). Science did not let us solidify that claim.

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Birding the Ndumo area, South Africa

10,000 Birds

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. It goes like this: While fishing, the bird tucks its head down and uses its wings to create a shady area. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

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Being A Living Fossil Evolved Multiple Times

10,000 Birds

It has been discovered that largosity and flightlessness, which perhaps fortunately tend to go together in birds, evolved more than once. Yes, the Ratites, as they are known, broke off from the other bird lineage as a separate monophyletic thing, separate from all the other birds today. This was on Gondwana.

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KwaZulu-Natal

10,000 Birds

“ There is, perhaps, no better place in the world for birds than this country. Despite discovering dozens of bird species, he is however not remembered in any English names of birds. Wahlberg travelled even more extensively and amassed a huge bird collection. Image by Hugh Chittenden. Image by Adam Riley.

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Birding the Kruger Park (3): Malelane area

10,000 Birds

I usually do not write much about traveling to and from birding places but my friend and I arrived in Malelane in the afternoon. Fortunately, we were there for the birds, not for the room. The Lilac-breasted Roller is the national bird of Kenya, but of course, this does not help it pay its bills in South Africa.

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The Dove Who Came In From the Cold

10,000 Birds

Rather, my trip to the American Museum of Natural History last week was enlivened, however slightly, by spotting a Rock Pigeon perched on top of the elephants in the Hall of African Mammals, safely out of the elements and unexposed to Central Park’s hawks. The pigeon seemed very comfortable. So what does it really mean?

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