Bruce's Mystery Bird

Last week my friend Bruce saw this bird fall past his window at work in Witbank (presumably from the gutter), where it had what seemed to be a fit of some sorts - it just lay there on the ground on its back flapping its wings. So Bruce went out, caught the bird, comforted it, and gave it some water. After a while the bird recovered to such an extent that it could stand by itself again, and later seemed perfectly normal before it flew off.

He took two photographs of the bird using his cellphone, and asked me to identify it. And so I'm uhmmm, stumped. So is my birding mentor Derick. In our defense I have to say the pictures aren't that great and doesn't show the breast or underparts well. ;-)


Bruce described it the following way:

• Bigger than a finch, smaller than a dove :-)
• Very green on the back, NOT mottled
• Definite black eye
• Longish, grey legs
• Very sharp bill

So, what does the experts say?

Sappi Great Birding Adventure 2006 - Glenthorpe

Middelburg Mahems
The weekend of the 27th October saw the "Middelburg Mahems" (Derick & Charmaine Oosthuizen, Ken Hattingh and myself) partaking in the Sappi Great Birding Adventure at Sappi Glenthorpe Mill near Barberton. This was the fist time I took part of this annual Sappi event, and hopefully not the last! Feeling the need to add a bit of a challenge to the old hands, I set the rest of the Middelburg Mahems the target of helping me find at least 5 more lifers.

!!! FLUFFTAIL !!!
The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly meeting a Redchested Flufftail on Saturday afternoon. We were exploring the forest just across the road from the mill, and at the very first little dam we heard a Redchested Flufftail calling on the downstream side. After playing the call, we got a response from the reeds right next to the road on the upstream (dam) side. We called again, and the reply came back from right under our noses! We sat and waited on the side of the road, when suddenly Derick & Charmaine saw it come out of the reeds onto a log right under me, not 2m away, but obscured from my view by the embankment. Just my luck, of course!


Derick called again, and about two minutes later it stuck its head out for about two seconds about half a metre higher up. Then it came out right into the open, and crossed over a 4m clearing in the reeds less than 5m away from us! We couldn't believe our luck!!!! I ran to fetch my camera and managed to get 3 shots when it crossed back accross the same clearing again. Unfortunately the light was very bad (already after sunset), so the quality of the photographs is not very good, but here they are!

Birds Listed
We listed 122 species on Sappi grounds for the weekend, including the following 10 lifers for me:

• Yellowfronted Tinker Barbet
• Bush Blackcap
• Redfaced Cisticola
• Klaas' Cuckoo
• Redchested Flufftail
• Grassbird
• Redbacked Mannikin
• Longtailed Wagtail
• Broadtailed Warbler
• Golden Weaver

Ten lifers fo rthe trip brings my life list to 519! Well done Middelburg Mahems old hands, you (only just) made your target!

Wakkerstroom 22-25 September 2006

During the long weekend of 22-25 September, Marietjie & I went to Wakkerstroom with Derick & Charmaine Oosthuizen, one of our goals being taking my lifelist past 500. Having never been to Wakkerstroom, I did not quite know what to expect, but I have to admit that all expectations were exceeded!

Birding-wise the weekend was a huge success. On Saturday morning we went out from 7 to 12 with local guide Lucky Ngwenya (arranged through BLSA). I can really recommend Lucky, he has an excellent knowledge of the local birds and birding spots, communicates well in both English and Afrikaans, not to mention having very sharp eyes! During this few hours I added the following lifers to my list:

• Yellowbreasted Pipit (Paulpiet road)
• Wailing Cisticola (Paulpiet road)
• Blue Korhaan (Paulpiet road)
• Eastern Longbilled Lark (Paulpiet road)
• Sentinel Rockthrush (Paulpiet road)
• Longbilled Pipit (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Whitebellied Korhaan (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Redwing Francolin (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Rudd's Lark (Amersfoort road)
• Mountain Chat (Amersfoort Road)
• South African Shellduck (Wetlands)
• African Rail (Wetlands)

During the morning we also saw six more species that would have been lifers if I could have had time to check them out thoroughly, but unfortunately they were either flying or not hanging around long enough for me to really "meet" them. Not good enough for a tick in my book anyway.

On Sunday we drove to Zaaihoek dam, and at the gorge below the dam wall I saw three lifers within a stretch of 100m!

• Ground Woodpecker
• Cape Bunting
• African Rock Pipit

Excitement ran high when the African Rock Pipit answered to our calls, and came flying from across the gorge and perched on a rock, calling continuously, about 10-12m away! A lifer for Derick and Charmaine (both approaching the 700 mark), who have been trying to find this one for many years!

Sunday afternoon we went up Ossewa mountain in the hope that the wind would die down and offer a valley release so I could take a flight or two with my paraglider, but alas, the wind strength just increased and almost blew us away that evening! Wakkerstroom gave new meaning to the term "wind" - Never in my life have I experienced three consecutive days of such strong winds.

Had the wind been more friendly, I'm sure the birding would have been even better, as a lot of the birds were hiding from the wind. But still - this was a HUGE weekend!

Southern African 500 reached !!!!!!!!!

At the beginning of this year (2006), my Southern African life list was around 440, and I set myself the target to reach 500 before the end of the year. During June/July a trip to Botswana/Caprivi brought me into the 490s. Last week I was on 494, and hoped that a weekend to Wakkerstroom would be enough to reach my target. In my wildest dreams I would not have thought that I would come back with 15 (!!!) lifers for the weekend, pushing my list up to 509!

So my target for the year has been reached with about 3 months to spare! Now for 550 before end 2007...

A special word of thanks to my birding "mentors", Derick & Charmaine Oosthuizen who introduced me to this wonderful interest, followed my progress with enthusiasm, and went out of their way to help me reach this milestone. A toast to you!

Mystery Bird Identified

The mystery bird in the previous post has been identified as a white form of a female zebra finch. Thanks to all who have responded to my query on the SA Birdnet list.

Mystery Bird

On Sunday 2006/09/17, I noticed a "mystery" bird feeding in my garden amongst laughing doves and redheaded finches. Being slightly smaller than the redheaded finches, my first thought was that it may be an leucistic pintailed wydah, but the only clear markings does not match either the male or female, nor any other SA seadeater.

Unfortunately the photographs are not of a very good quality, as they were shot through the scope, but they are good enough to see the markings clearly.

It is all white, with a hint of a greyish tint at the head. It has a heavy, bright orange bill and bright orange legs. At the base of the bill there is a clear black line, as well as a black "tearstripe" running vertically down from each eye.

So my question to the experts are: is this an leucistic southern african bird or some or other escapee?