Highlights of the Past Week

Male sunbirds are some of the most colourful birds that you might find in Harare. If you spend time watching them, you will notice a dazzling array of iridescent colours, especially when the sunlight catches them at just the right angle. Probably the most common sunbird in Harare gardens - the Variable Sunbird - has colours ranging from green through blue to purple, which contrast strongly with it's bright yellow belly.

Male Variable Sunbird

If you're lucky enough to see a male sunbird displaying, you might also notice it's pectoral tufts, or epaulettes,  which it raises as part of the performance.

A male Variable Sunbird with raised epaulettes, just after displaying to a female.
This individual was ringed in September 2011.

Along with the sunbirds, I have been busy photographing birds around Borrowdale Brooke recently:

Male Cut-throat Finch.

Common Moorhens fighting. I have seen this behaviour often, but never caught it on camera before.

African Stonechat female.

The weavers are getting into the breeding season already. Village Weavers have already started in the Brooke, and this Southern Masked-weaver is now busy building.

One more exciting thing from Borrowdale Brooke this week - in fact it even found its way into my house! It was some sort of insectivorous bat, currently unidentified, and quite a large one too.

We went ringing at Greystone Park on the 4th of August, in an attempt to catch some of the breeding Village Weavers. We caught some, along with birds like White-browed Robin-chat, Red-faced Cisticola and Bar-throated Apalis.

One of the Red-faced Cisticolas we caught was a re-trap, originally ringed as an adult in September 2010 - almost two years ago.

Another Red-faced Cisticola (we caught 5 that morning) had an interesting tail moult...

All 6 feathers on the right side (starting at the plain brown one in the middle) are old and not currently in moult.
The outer 3 on the left are the same, but the inner three are all in active moult.
This is interesting because usually tail feathers are moulted symmetrically - for example the two inner (plain) feathers would moult at the same time, followed by the next ones going outwards until the outermost two moult together.

Bar-throated Apalis

There seems to be a number of African Spoonbills floating around at the moment. I saw one in Borrowdale Brooke on the 5th of August, one at Greengrove Dam on the same day and one at Greystone Park on the 4th.

Other good sightings at Greengrove include the usual Hottentot Teal, African Purple Swamphen, African Rail (heard), Three-banded Plover, plus a Lilac-breasted Roller and two Red-winged Starlings flying over. However, no Ibis, Egrets or Cormorants came to roost on the island.

The very best sighting out of all of these trips was also at Greengrove Dam, and wasn't even a bird. As the light was fading, and we were standing there quietly shivering, suddenly a couple of African Clawless Otters appeared in the water! We had about 5 minutes of fantastic otter-watching before they disappeared, then reappeared, now in a group of three. Soon they vanished into the reeds, and although the light was not great I managed some alright photographs.

Hippo Pools

I recently spent a weekend at Hippo Pools camp in Umfurudzi Safari Area with the ringing group. This is a beautiful camp set among the thick riverine forest which runs along the Mazowe River. We went on Saturday the 21st of July and returned on Monday.

Riverine thicket in the bed of a dried-up tributary.

Looking upstream at the Mazowe River. Hippo Pools is on the right.

We didn't do much ringing - too busy looking at all the lovely birds that were around! We did manage catch some birds; Terrestrial Brownbuls, a Red-throated Twinspot and a Black-throated Wattle-eye, among others. One Black-throated Wattle-eye with a ring was photographed afterwards. The ring number was not visible, but the bird had an obvious tick behind its right eye, making it different to the individual we had just ringed! It was probably the bird we ringed in the same spot a year ago.

The scenery from camp is quite lovely, as it overlooks the river in which you can watch Hippos during the day. Most of the game in Umfurudzi has been poached over the years, but recently some animals have been re-introduced. We managed to see Vervet Monkey, Baboon, Hippo, Kudu, Eland, Impala, Klipspringer and Zebra along the road or near the camp. We were also lucky enough to visit the camp manager's chalet, where he feeds Brown Greater Galago (Bushbaby) and Rusty Spotted Genet at night!

Hippopotamus

Vervet Monkey

Brown Greater Galago

Rusty-spotted Genet

The six of us managed to see just under 90 species during the weekend. The birds were, as per usual for this area, brilliant. At night African Wood-owls were calling in the camp, plus I heard one Barn Owl. On Sunday and Monday morning a Verreaux's Eagle-owl was seen by other groups, but by the time we got there it had flown off (we were busy ringing!). I looked hard for the Pel's Fishing Owl, but didn't see or hear it, unfortunately...

In the riverine around camp was where the best birding took place. Birds seen here, along with the river and nearby drier woodlands include: Green-backed Heron, Black Stork, African Goshawk, Three-banded Plover, Water Thick-knee, African Green-pigeon, Klaas's Cuckoo, one Narina Trogon, Giant, Pied, Brown-hooded and Striped Kingfishers, Common Scimitarbill, Greater and Lesser Honeyguides, Eastern Saw-wing, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Grey Penduline-tit, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Bearded Scrub-robin, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Ashy Flycatcher, Black-throated Wattle-eye, Livingstone's Flycatcher, African Paradise-flycatcher, Grey-headed Bush-shrike, White-crested Helmet-shrike (usually seen alongside Red-headed Weavers), Collared Sunbird, Red-throated Twinspot and Red-backed Mannikin.

Female Narina Trogon - tricky bird to photograph due to the usually poor light  conditions of its habitat.

Above and below - Livingstone's Flycatcher. A busy bird that just won't keep still!

A couple of interesting things - an unusual record of African Paradise-flycatcher in winter... Only one was seen, an adult male. Perhaps some birds overwinter here? It is a fair bit lower altitude-wise than Harare.

Also, the Eastern Saw-wings. There were at least ten, maybe more, flying around camp. In the time of SABAP1 (1987-1991), this bird was not recorded in the quarter degree square (QDS) in which the camp is located. 20 years is a long time - perhaps we are seeing another range expansion?

A map showing which QDS's the Eastern Saw-wing was recorded in for SABAP1 (red squares),
along with the location of Hippo Pools.

Birds seen on the road between the park gate and Hippo Pools (dry miombo/mopane woodlands) include: Black Stork (at Amm Mine, near the gate. Probably the same pair as the ones seen at Hippo Pools), Bateleur, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Lanner Falcon (nesting at Amm Mine), Red-eyed and Cape Turtle-doves, Racket-tailed Roller (gorgeous!), African Grey and Red-billed Hornbills, Familiar Chat, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Retz's and White-crested Helmet-shrikes, Yellow-throated Petronia and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

Black Storks at Amm Mine

My best picture from the trip - Racket-tailed Roller.

Weekend of 14-15 July

Saturday morning arrived again and it was time for another visit to Afdis! This is one of our most productive ringing sites, and the most recent trip was no exception - 30 birds caught. Many were warblers (Dark-capped Yellow, Lesser Swamp, Little Rush and African Reed Warblers), plus a bunch of Dark-capped Bulbuls, a Bar-throated Apalis, African Yellow White-eyes, Copper Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Red-faced Cisticola, Village Weaver, Blacksmith Lapwing and more. There were only two Three-banded Plovers at the ponds, one of which had a ring. There was also one Black-winged Stilt. Four Yellow-billed Storks flew past, and there were raptors such as Black-chested Snake-eagle and Long-crested Eagle around most of the morning.

Black-winged Stilt

Dark-capped Bulbul

Bar-throated Apalis

Copper Sunbird - male in non-breeding plumage

Village Weaver - male moulting into breeding plumage

The next day I went to Trader Horn, Lake Chivero, for most of the day. The wind was blowing much of the time, but that actually made for interesting birding, as the wind was pushing floating mats of weed into the bay, along with many herons and egrets that were using it as a fishing platform! I counted 20+ Grey Herons, at least as many Great Egrets, and various other species with them including a Goliath Heron. A few birds came close enough to get some nice photographs, whilst two in particular were the main performers of the day; a Purple Heron and a Squacco Heron, both fishing very close to shore. The Squacco looked like it had bit off more than it could chew when it finally managed to spear a fish - it's actually a pretty small bird.

Great Egret

Purple Heron

Squacco Heron - a big fish for a such a little heron!

Another exciting sighting was that of an immature African Fish-eagle catching a fish, but unfortunately not close enough to photograph well.

Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens

I have been on two trips to Ewanrigg Bot. Gardens recently; one was a ringing trip and the other was spent photographing sunbirds.

The ringing trip was on the 4th of July. We caught some great birds like Whyte's Barbet, Brown-hooded Kingfisher and male Variable and Miombo Double-collared Sunbirds. My second visit was on 12 July.

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

On both trips there were quite a lot of flowering aloes, but they were the smaller, yellowish flowers. The birds seem to prefer the red flowers, which had already finished flowering, but there were still a fair few sunbirds around. Scarlet-chested, Amethyst, Miombo Double-collared, Variable and White-bellied Sunbirds were all feeding on the aloes at some point. Grey-backed Camaroptera, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Tropical Boubou, White-browed Robin-chat and Dark-capped Bulbul were in this rocky area with the aloe plants. Dozens of Bronze Mannikins and Blue Waxbills, plus a few Red-backed Mannikins, were drinking at a dripping tap nearby.
The Kenya Coffee Tree was flowering, and feeding on these flowers were the five previously mentioned sunbirds, plus Western Violet-backed and Copper Sunbirds, adding up to seven species! Black-headed Oriole, Dark-capped Bulbul and Village Weaver were also feeding on the flowers. Interestingly, all of the Village Weavers were in full or near full breeding plumage, which seems a bit early, as winter is not even over yet.

Male Village Weaver

Female Miombo Double-collared Sunbird

Male Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Elsewhere, the gardens were full of activity. Some of the highlights were: Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, Ashy Flycatcher, Black Stork (flew over on 12th), African Goshawk, African Harrier-hawk (4th), African Grey Hornbill, Whyte's Barbet, Lesser Honeyguide, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Brown-crowned Tchagra and Grey-headed Bush-shrike (12th).

Black Stork

Blue Waxbill

Speckled Mousebird

Streaky-headed Seedeater

Lastly, I have added some photos taken recently in Borrowdale Brooke.

Black-shouldered Kite

Groundscraper Thrush; a winter visitor to Borrowdale Brooke

Black-backed Puffback, female

Hideaway Lodge, Darwendale Dam

On Friday (29 June) Julia and I visited Hideaway Lodge, situated on the north shore of Darwendale Dam. It is about 40km from Harare, and at least half of this distance is on dirt roads.
The road passes through some farmland on the way, where we saw birds such as Rufous-naped and Red-capped Larks, and Capped Wheatear.

Rufous-naped Lark

Once at Hideaway, we quickly noticed a fruiting fig tree, in which dozens of birds were gorging themselves. There were several Speckled Mousebirds and dozens of Southern Masked-weaver, but no sign of the Lesser Masked-weaver, which I have seen here before. There were even a few Wattled Starlings feeding on the figs. A stunning male Marico Sunbird was feeding nearby.

Marico Sunbird

The main action was happening at the water's edge. As we stood at the boat launch site, we watched flocks of waterbirds flying past, mostly to a spot about 1km east of Hideaway. There were also a lot of birds already on the floating vegetation along the shoreline. There were White-breasted and Reed Cormorants, but no African Darter. Darters are now very rare on Chivero and Darwendale. Grey, Purple, Goliath, Squacco and Black Herons were around, plus Cattle and Yellow-billed Egrets. Few Glossy Ibis were seen, along with African Sacred Ibis and African Openbill.

Ducks and Geese were well represented with over 100 each of White-faced Duck and Red-billed Teal, 20 Egyptian Goose, 8 Spur-winged Goose, 10 Hottentot Teal, 30 Southern Pochard, 60 Fulvous Duck and, the star of the show, over 200 Comb (Knob-billed) Duck!

African Jacana were everywhere, and Red-knobbed Coot, Black Crake, Common Moorhen and African Purple Swamphen were all common.

Waders were mostly Blacksmith Lapwings, plus a small number of African Wattled and Crowned Lapwings, and a few Three-banded and Kittlitz's Plovers. About 50 Collared Pratincoles were flying around in a couple of groups. Grey-headed Gulls were easily seen, but not particularly numerous. Only two Whiskered Terns were seen.

One of the larger flocks of Comb Ducks

Beautiful African Purple Swamphen

Collared Pratincole

African Fish-eagle was the only raptor seen during the morning. Other birds seen include Senegal Coucal, Pied, Giant and Malachite Kingfishers, Lilac-breasted Roller, African Grey Hornbill, African Pied Wagtail, African Pipit (over 20), Yellow-throated and Rosy-throated Longclaws and House Sparrow. Swallows were fairly well represented with five species, but not as well as in summer, when I have seen up to 10 species. We saw Wire-tailed, Lesser Striped, Pearl-breasted and Grey-rumped Swallows, plus a Brown-throated Martin.

Rosy-throated Longclaw

Pearl-breasted (top right) and Wire-tailed Swallows

A few weeks previous to our visit, a Birdlife Zimbabwe member showed me a photograph of a ringed Blacksmith Plover. One of my goals on this visit was to get the ring number - no easy task! I did manage to clearly photograph the first four digits, and the last two are a bit vague but I think I got them right. Now we just have to find out who ringed it...

Darwendale Dam is an excellent birding destination, well worth a visit. Even a small section of shoreline such as we covered (we walked about 1km of shoreline) can be very productive.

A large group of various waterbirds; mostly Comb Duck