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Picathartes – Africa’s strangest birds

10,000 Birds

Photo by Adam Riley (Rockjumper Birding Tours) Despite initial appearances, these birds are in fact very large passerines (13-16 in) and research has shown them to be an ancient basal offshoot from the passerine evolutionary tree. Gray-necked or Red-headed Picathartes in Korup National Park, Cameroon.

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The wonders of migration

10,000 Birds

They need to go north to breed and we will anxiously await the return of the adults and the juveniles later in the year. In the past there has been a lot of research done using satellite tracking to find out the exact routes that a variety of larger migratory shorebirds take and there were some amazing discoveries made.

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Ghana – Rainforest Birding on the Brink by Adam Riley

10,000 Birds

They are large passerines and research has shown them to be an ancient basal offshoot from the passerine tree (at approximately the same time as rockjumpers, were even placed in the same family until quite recently). Then a few years ago the news broke that picathartes had been rediscovered at a community forest reserve in Ghana.

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