Readers’ wildlife photos

March 13, 2024 • 8:30 am

Once again I importune my faithful reader/photographers to send in their wildlife photos. Thanks!

Today we have some birds from one of my future destinations: South Africa. The photographer is Billy Terre Blanche, his notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

As your readers know by now I am keen birder,  and South & Southern Africa is the ideal place to enjoy this past-time (obsession!}.

Many of the below pictures were taken at the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, a charming small reserve located right on the edge of Pretoria, within 5km of my house. As you can see, I decided to concentrate on the smaller members of the bird family.

African Stonechat – Male (Saxicola torquatus):

African Yellow Warbler (Iduna natalensis):

Capped Wheatear (Oenanthe pileata):

Cuckoo=Finch (Anomalospiza imberbis).  The Cuckoo Finch is a brood parasite, with a wide variety of hosts including Cisticolas, Prinias and Bishops. This is the male, which looks nothing like its potential host, but the female is very similar in appearance to the females of the hosts species mentioned above:

Half-collared Kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata):

Levaillant’s Cisticola (Cisticola tinniens):

Little Sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus):

Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedo cristata):

Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum). A very small owl, on average only about 19cm (7.5 inches) in size, and unlike most other owls it is often  seen during the day:

Pin-tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura).  This bird is displaying its extravagant breeding plumage, only seen during the summer months, while in winter it turns into a plain brown bird. See also the Shaft-tailed Whydah below:

Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus):

Rufous-naped Lark (Mirafra africana):

Shaft-tailed Whydah (Vidua regia):

White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides):

21 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. Wow! These are wonderfully exotic birds. Hard to pick a favourite, but the bee-eater is right up there.

    Thanks for sharing, Everyone! I enjoy all the contributions every morning, even if I don’t comment, laggard that I am these days.

  3. Wow. What a range! I love the beak details of the kingfishers and hawk. And a daytime owl against blue sky. Thank you.

  4. Very nice! Looking at those soft, downy feathers on many of those birds, one can easily infer that those feathers are for insulation. Warm and cozy!

  5. What a gorgeous collection of birds. I love that tail on the Whydah. All your photos are incredible.

    2. How can this bird preserve such a thin long talik without the ends getting snagged or shredded?

  6. Gorgeous birds, wonderful photos! The kingfishers are much sleeker than the ones in my ‘hood, which always look like someone mussed them up.

    1. Yes, these where on the back of a Cape Buffalo, but Oxpeckers are associated with animals from the size of an Impala (a small antelope) all the way up African Elephants. They have a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with the animal, where both species benefit from the interaction. The birds help to keep the animals hide clean from parasites such as ticks (on which they feed), and also sometimes act as “early warning systems”, raising the alarm when a predator is spotted.

  10. Thanks for that, it was abit like a morning carnival! all that colour to the scent of coffee.

  11. Wow, nearly impossible to pick a favorite, but I might have to go with the Malachite Kingfisher.

  12. I don’t say thank-you nearly often enough for the wonderful pictures in this slot. So thank you!

  13. I really love your photographs, with the birds caught in interesting poses against clean backdrops. Thank you very much.

  15. Even by the standards of Professor Ceiling Cat’s wildlife photographs, these are awesome! I can practically feel the feathers.

  17. Wow. These are lovely photos. I can’t get over the variety of birds in South Africa. Just gorgous.

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