99 SMAP contests!! Amazing how long we've been having fun; triple digits seems a great way to start the year in beauty.
And since the last contest of the year features free theme, here's the last species I saw, for the first time!
I spent the last week visiting the island of Sal, in Cabo Verde archipelago, in the westen coast of Africa. The island is incredibly arid, with very little amounts of rain each year (if any!), and I haven't seen that much wildlife; but to compensate the lack of variety, one of the species was everpresent!
Sparrows!
This species is endemic to Cabo Verde, and can be found in almost all islands of the archipelago. In Sal, we found them everywhere.
They are small sparrows, smaller than the common house sparrow; and as you can see by the photos, it's easy to tell male and female apart: as usual, males are prettier, with a chestnut colour on the sides of the head and in the back. Female has duller colours, with a white superciliar stripe.
It was common to see large groups scouting the lawns in front of the hotel, and some individuals doing yoga on the palm trees.
The island is very small, around 30km long, and during a tour of the island, I found them almost everywhere we stopped, beach included!
It was in the hotel they were more present, thow; there wasn't a meal, early or late in the day, where the adventurous ones were jumping around, easting on the crumbs. There were signs saying to not feed the birds, but they managed pretty well without anyone actively feeding them. And if by any chance any food was left unsupervised...
Cake, anyone?
I witnessed a couple of times someone going for the buffet, leave a full plate outside, going back in to get something... and comeback to see a plate full of happy sparrows!! 😁 😁
If you ever visit Cabo Verde, you won't need to be looking for them, you'll find them for sure; and only there, since they can't be found anywhere else!
Merry Christmas everyone! And here's to a year full of feathered beauties!
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