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Birding the Kruger Park (4): Letaba area

10,000 Birds

It is near a river, attracting some birds that like to eat wet food. As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The birds I asked about this pretended not to be related to anyone though.

Zimbabwe 147
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White-backed Vultures are Proper Birds

10,000 Birds

A great shiny bauble to entice people to the hobby, before they get stuck into great big proper meaty birds (in a strictly not-eating-them sense). Baby’s First Bird, if you will. Vultures are proper birds. Big hearty birds that hearty men and women of the wild can get their teeth into (again, in a metaphorical sense).

Africa 175
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Tanzanian Starlings, Shrikes, and Weavers (Part 3)

10,000 Birds

Click on the image to see a Speke’s Weaver colony in action on an escarpment near Lake Manyara, Tanzania. The Red-headed Weaver hunting silently in the treetops. Other weavers include the Grey-capped Social Weaver which is the size of a little sparrow. And the splendid Spectacled Weaver nesting in my mother’s backyard.

Tanzania 178
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Africa’s Big Five and Little Five

10,000 Birds

Originally a hunting term, the Big Five were the most dangerous and prized targets of the great white hunters on safari. As visitors’ and the public’s interests expanded from the Big Five, and an appreciation for lesser mammals, birds and smaller wildlife has became more widespread, the term Little Five was coined.

Buffalo 210
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The Storks of Africa

10,000 Birds

Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. The Saddle-billed Stork has a similar Africa-wide distribution as the Marabou.

Africa 244
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Can we talk about Cecil the Lion?

10,000 Birds

I get that you’re really angry, I mean, he was a popular lion and yes, his cute widdle cubs will probably die to, but I can’t help feeling you’ve kind of missed the point a bit, and well, ending all hunting in Africa will not solve much and maybe make things worse and… No, no, I’m not a hunter. I’m sorry.

Lions 215
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Patch: An Urban Red-tailed Hawk (3 of 4)

10,000 Birds

She had inadvertently cached the food and come back for it in the midst of hunting for other things. Another revelation came when I discovered she was hunting well into the night. When she returned the following year she had refined her hunting technique. She had remembered. It was a remarkable thing to see. Stay tuned.

Gophers 214