2025-01-26: Birds in Pairs

I decided to focus on birds this week, and looked for images where I had a pair of the same species together. I was surprised how many I found, and surprised by how many bird images I still have to go through from my last few trips.

While the wattled cranes are a fairly rare sighting and the pygmy geese were a first for me, the rest of the birds featured are fairly wide spread and easy to spot. I’d be pretty shocked for anyone to go on a southern African safari and not see a lilac breasted roller and at least one type of hornbill.

A pair of wire tailed swallows perched on the guard rail along a bridge. Klaserie Sands Private Game Reserve, South Africa. April, 2024.
A pair of yellow-billed hornbills spotted on a drive in Klaserie Sands Private Game Reserve, South Africa. April 2024.
A pair of pygmy geese seen in the Okavango Delta. Botswana. April, 2024.
A pair of wattled cranes seen in Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A pair of red-billed hornbills spotted during a game drive. Makadikadi Pans National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
Seeing double with a pair of blacksmith lapwings perfectly reflected in the shallow pool they were standing in. It was a toss up between watching the birds and watching the sunrise. Savute Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A pair of wire tailed swallows hitching a ride on the front of our boat. Chobe National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
A pair of lilac breasted rollers spotted in Chobe National Park. We had hoped seeing them together we might see the unique rolling behaviour in flight, but no luck there. There’s always next time! Botswana, April, 2024.

2024-12-08: Lilac Breasted Roller

I was in awe of the lilac breasted roller at first sight, and they have remained my very favourite bird to spot on safari ever since. It would be a challenge to think of a time on a game drive when I saw one and didn’t mention it; not necessarily as a request to stop, but it is just such a striking bird that I can’t help but comment on it. Seeing them with a beautiful clear blue sky in the background is a bonus, but they are beautiful even in flat light.

Here are a couple of images of lilac breasted rollers from my most recent trip.

A lilac breasted roller coming in to land at an ant hill. The rollers were very active in this area, which was not far from the banks of the Chobe River. They gave me lots of opportunity to try to catch them in flight. Chobe National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
This roller posed for a decent amount of time, in perfect early morning light, allowing not only for some good photographs, but a good opportunity to study the bird. Notice the tiny hook at the end of the beak, and that the eyebrow feathers are perhaps the plainest ones anywhere on its body. Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
Another roller in perfect light, showing off a view of the underside and wings as it takes off from its dead tree perch. Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.

2023-11-26: An assortment of birds

I felt like some colour on a dull day, so small birds with bright feathers it is. The lilac breasted roller remains one of my favourite birds to spot on safari, and I was quite excited on my past trip to have the chance to see other types of rollers as well. I didn’t get great photos of the other rollers, but included them anyways to show the variety of colours.

A lilac breasted roller.
A purple roller.

It was unfortunate to only see the purple roller and racket tailed roller high up against very bright skies, but at least I did get the racket tailed roller at the right angle to show off the interesting tail feathers.

A racket tailed roller.
A southern masked weaver.

These weaver images were taken in different areas; the southern masked weaver is wide spread and they create very interesting nests that often hang over water. The males are in charge of construction, and the females in charge of determining if the nest is up to standards or not. When you come across a large colony, you will often see nests that have been abandoned partway through construction.

A southern masked weaver colony in the midst of nest construction.
A male long tailed widowbird in breeding plumage.
A male violet backed starling.

2020-03-15: African Birds

It was far too cold for me to get out and photograph any local birds this week, so instead I have come up with quite a random assortment of African bird images to share this week.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.  Stay safe out there!

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A pair of crested francolin, part of a large group that were foraging along the side of the road.

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My personal favourite, the lilac breasted roller.

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A female bearded woodpecker seen on an early morning game drive.

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This photo makes me laugh, because when I look at it, I can hear the bird calling “Go Away”.  These are a pair of grey go-away birds.

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A coqui francolin pausing from it’s foraging to give me a photo op.

2019-12-29: Lilac Breasted Rollers

I missed the opportunity to get out and photograph my local birds today, which is a bit of a shame, as it has been a lovely day with mild temperatures and blue skies.  So instead, I’ll share a few images of my favourite African bird, the stunning lilac-breasted roller.

This will be the last Sunday post not only of the year, but of the decade.  It seems a bit hard to believe.  I don’t yet have a grand plan for the blog in 2020; so far, the only plan is to continue to share images and some of the stories that go alone with the photos, and see how things go.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead, and many thanks for your support throughout the year.

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2019-12-15: Photo Art – Birds

For the last few days, it has been very quiet around the yard in terms of bird life.  While last weekend the chickadees, nuthatches and flickers seemed to be around non-stop, the past few days, even on my walks, I haven’t heard a twitter.

With birds on my mind, I decided to play around with some of my photo art edits for my post this week.  This is a topic that I have worked on previously; if you missed some of the posts from a couple of months ago, here are two links to take a look at:

2019-10-20: Photo Art – Owls

2019-09-15: Photo Arts – Birds

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A saddle billed stork resting along the shore of a small dam.

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A pair of Verreaux’s eagle owls

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A helmeted guinea fowl

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A long-crested eagle perched at the top of a dead tree.

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One of my favourite birds to see on safari, a lilac breasted roller.  Just a little brighter than you may see in real life 🙂

2019-08-31: Birds – Shades of Blue

Travelling through southern Africa, pretty much any time of year, will provide the opportunity to see a great variety of birds.  Today I chose to focus on ones with feathers in shades of blue.  I hope you enjoy the variety of images today, and wishing you a wonderful weekend!

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A lilac breasted roller

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A burchell’s starling

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A white-bellied sunbird

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A pair of cape glossy starlings

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A green wood-hoopoe

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A cape glossy starling

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A wire-tailed swallow

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A double-collared sunbird

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A lilac breasted roller

2019-04-07: Birds

A random selection of bird images this week!

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Oftentimes, spotting a congregation of vultures like this, and heading to where they are circling yields an interesting discovery… but in this case, they were all just hovering over a bare patch of desert beyond this bush.

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A group of wattled cranes seen in Botswana.

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A little bee-eater ruffling its feathers.

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Try as I might, I am unable to identify these raptors.  They were spotted on a game drive in Botswana from the Leroo La Tau camp.

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A red-billed quelea flock at sunset.

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Red-billed quelea leaving a roosting spot.  That small tree was absolutely vibrating with energy while they were there.

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An African harrier hawk taking some grief from a pigeon.

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My personal favourite, the lilac breasted roller.

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A Meyer’s parrot spotted in Botswana.  This was the first wild parrot I’d ever seen.

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A Meyer’s parrot.

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