A person asked me if we have many birds here and I answered and said yes, we have a few. We are at the extreme southern tip of the African continent, and this is the last stop on land for the south bound birds.
I think that this is a few birds, and they are Red-winged Starlings.
Spring season has arrived early, and the birds come in from all over to breed in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A nice surprise is also waiting for the flamingos when they arrive, as the lake where they breed is full of water, due to our heavy rains. The weatherman reckons that we should not pack our winter clothes away yet, as some more cold and rainy days will soon arrive.
Too many to count here below as they took off.
Now these below are Pied crows
I would say that there are also a few of them here. Any self-respecting raptor bird will bite its nails if it has to suddenly fly into this huge mob of crows.
I closed in with the shots to show you that they really are crows.
And here we have a few Guinea fowls.
The sad news is that South Africa has 7 bird species that have become critically endangered, 28 species that are listed as endangered and 32 species that are vulnerable. I can only hope that the children of future generations would still be able to see them.
Who says that Guinea fowls can't fly?
Finally, this is only a sample, as some days this field is littered with hundreds of guinea fowls.
Southern Africa has 989 bird species that breed here in a land area that covers approximately 3,5 million square meters. The area lies to the south of the Kunene, Okavango and Zambezi rivers and the area consists of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Swaziland and Mozambique. So, you can see that the region draws many bird species from all over the world to come and breed in the hot African sun.
We are fortunate to be at southern tip of the region, as many of the species end up here.
I hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Note: Information taken from my bird book;
Birds of Southern Africa, ISBN: 978-1-77584-668-0
And That's All Friends.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.
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