The White-throated Swallow is a fairly large and handsome species. It has glossy dark blue upperparts which can appear black in poor light. The frons is red-brown or chestnut and is confined to the forehead. The most distinguishing feature is a broad, glossy dark blue breast band, which is narrowest at the centre. The breast band can sometimes be incomplete. The throat is pure white and the undersides are dull white to pale greyish in colour. The eyes are dark brown and the bill, legs and feet are black. The tail is forked and has comparatively short and broad tail streamers.
Adult White-throated Swallows are most likely to be mistaken for the Wire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithii) but that species is distinctly smaller and has an entirely chestnut crown. The Wire-tailed Swallow also lacks the broad breast band, showing only a partial breast at the shoulders. The Wire-tailed Swallow also has a black vent band (conspicuous in flight) and the tail streamers are long and thin.
Juveniles are duller than adults and the breast band and upperparts are brownish, but may show hints of the adults blue colouration. Juveniles also lack the red-brown forehead patch.
Juveniles can be confused with the Banded Martin (Riparia cincta) but that species has a square tail and a small white supercilium.
A locally common intra-African breeding migrant. The White-throated Swallow is restricted to Africa south of the equator. It is distributed virtually throughout Southern Africa. It is common in the wetter parts of South Africa but its distribution is more patchy across the rest of the subcontinent where it is far less common.
SABAP2 distribution map for White-throated Swallow (Hirundo albigularis) – April 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
The White-throated Swallow is not threatened in Southern Africa. It has expanded in numbers and range owing to the construction of artificial impoundments and the numerous man-made structures which have become available as nesting sites.
This swallow is usually found in the vicinity of wetlands, especially rivers, dams and other expanses of open water, where suitable nesting sites are available. It is most common in open habitats, especially in grassland and fynbos. It is less numerous in wooded environs.
Typical habitat. Orange River near Keimoes, Northern Cape Photo by Ryan Tippett
Behaviour
As already mentioned, the White-throated Swallow is an intra-African breeding migrant. They first arrive during August in South Africa, and most depart by mid April but some remain until May. Some birds overwinter in Southern Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe. Birds that breed in Southern Africa are believed to migrate to Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They are usually seen singly or in pairs. Often perches on wires, posts or stumps, especially over or near water. The flight is swift and agile. Prey items are caught in low, skimming flight over the ground, water or grassland and will sometimes hawk insects from a perch. Consumes aerial insects, such as flies, wasps, beetles and termite alates.
Breeding takes place soon after arrival in South Africa and has been recorded from August to April. Breeding peaks during October and multiple broods are raised. The nest is a robust cup composed of mud pellets, lined with fine grass, plant fibres, hair and feathers.
The nest may be attached to a vertical rock face but is usually placed under an overhang such as under bridges, culverts, water tanks, dam walls and under the eaves of buildings, mostly over or near water. In the Western Cape nests are sometimes built on structures over the sea.
Anywhere from 1 to 5 eggs (usually 3 eggs) are laid and incubation starts once all the eggs have been laid. Incubation takes about 17 days and all incubation duties are performed by the female. Young chicks take around 22 days to fledge and are fed by both parents during this time.
White-throated Swallows are double or multiple brooded, meaning they often breed more than once in a season.
Species text adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997. That text is here.
The use of photographs by Anthony Paton, Colin Summersgill, Lappies Labuschagne, Lia Steen, Marc Van Goethem and Robbie Aspeling is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names: Witkeelswael (Afrikaans); Mbawulwana (Tswana); iNkoniane (Zulu); Inkonjane (Xhosa); Hirondelle à gorge blanche (French); Weißkehlschwalbe (German); Andorinha-de-garganta-branca (Portuguese); Witkeelzwaluw (Dutch).
List of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. White-throated Swallow Hirundo albigularis. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/04/13/white-throated-swallow-hirundo-albigularis/
Cover image by Ryan Tippett – Carnarvon District, Northern Cape – BirdPix No. 97078 Cinnamon-breasted Warbler
Identification
The Cinnamon-breasted Warbler is a small dark brown, rock loving warbler. At close range its chestnut breast band, rump and forehead are diagnostic. The crown, mantle and wings are rufous brown. The supercilium, throat and breast are grey with indistinct dark barring. The flanks are rich rufous and lower belly is dark grey. The tail is black and is moderately long. The legs are relatively long and blackish grey.
The sexes are alike and the juveniles are a more uniform rusty-brown in colour.
The Cinnamon-breasted Warbler is generally uncommon and very localised in occurrence. It is endemic to Southern Africa. It occurs principally in the Karoo biome. In South Africa it is found locally in parts of the Northern and Western Cape, mostly in the interior. It is also found sparsely in Southern Namibia.
SABAP2 distribution map for Cinnamon-breasted Warbler (Euryptila subcinnamomea) – March 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
Habitat
Typical habitat near Carnarvon, Northern Cape Photo by Ryan Tippett
The Cinnamon-breasted Warbler is closely linked to rugged boulder-strewn hillsides, koppies, rocky mountainsides, cliffs and ravines with scattered karroid shrubs and grasses, and always in arid and semi-arid regions. It occurs most commonly in the Nama and Succulent Karoo biomes.
This is an active yet secretive species that is easily overlooked. However, at times it can be rather inquisitive. It is usually found singly, in pairs or small family groups. They forage at ground level or amongst boulders and bushes. They feed predominantly on small insects such as grasshoppers, termites, ants, caterpillars and bugs.
It may be seen at close quarters, before disappearing from view and then reappearing many metres away. It is quite mouse-like in its movements as it creeps about between boulders and on rock faces at any angle. It is usually detected by its loud song, which may be heard through the summer months.
This is a resident species but it is known to move about locally in response to environmental conditions.
Breeding takes place from July to October in winter rainfall regions and during December in the summer rainfall parts of its range. The nest is a fairly large oval ball composed of grass and other plant materials, bound together with cobwebs. The nest entrance is near the top of the most exposed side of the nest. The nest walls are thick and the interior is generously lined with the soft, white seed fibres of the Kapokbos Eriocephalus africanusas well as sheep’s wool and cobwebs. The nest is built into a suitable space within the branches of the supporting plant.
Two to four speckled white eggs are laid but further details of breeding are unrecorded.
Species text adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.
The use of photographs by Gerald Wingate, John Fincham and Maans Booysen is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names: Kaneelborssanger (Afrikaans); Camaroptère cannelle (French); Kopjeszanger (Dutch); Zimtbrustsänger (German); Felosa-de-peito-canela (Portuguese).
A list of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. Cinnamon-breasted Warbler Euryptila subcinnamomea. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/04/11/cinnamon-breasted-warbler-euryptila-subcinnamomea/
In the interior of South Africa, almost any gull which at first glance looks like a Kelp Gull (white head and body, black back and wings) is most likely a Lesser Black-backed Gull!
Adults have pale yellow eyes and yellow legs, but Kelp Gulls have dark eyes and dull greenish grey legs. There are also subtle differences in bill shape; the Kelp Gull has a rather stubby bill.
When standing, the wings of the Lesser Black-backed Gull project further beyond the end of tail than in Kelp Gull. Overall, this helps give it a sleeker appearance than Kelp Gull.
Here is a photograph with both species, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull in the middle, and a nearly adult Kelp Gull on the right:
The bird in the centre is a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and the one of the right is a Kelp Gull, not quite in full adult plumage. The Lesser Black-backed Gull has distinctly yellow legs; less distinct in this photograph is that the folded wing projects well beyond the end of the tail. This photograph was taken at Cape Recife, Algoa Bay, by Brian Groom on 1 March 2014. BirdPix record 9979
However, most of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls in South Africa are sub-adults, and are quite tricky to separate from sub-adult Kelp Gulls.
Here is a selection of records of subadult Lesser Black-backed Gulls from the Virtual Museum. (BirdPix record 10391, Mark Booysen, and BirdPix record 138072, Alan Collett)
First-year Lesser Black-backed Gulls have a dark eye; it becomes yellowish by the second year. Full adult plumage takes about four years to develop.
Habitat
Inland, Lesser Black-backed Gulls occur mainly on large wetlands, such as pans, flood plains and large dams.
Lesser Black-backed Gull in a freshwater habitat. This photograph was taken on the Mongu Kalabo River Plain adjacent to the Zambezi River in Zambia by Jonah Gula on 22 June 2022. BirdPix record 226341
On the coastline, they are mostly on (or near) large intertidal wetlands.
Lesser Black-backed Gull in a saltwater habitat. This photograph was taken on one of the big mudflats in Durban Harbour by Dave Rimmer on 13 June 2018. BirdPix record 55281
Distribution
The distribution map shows that this gull is a vagrant. There are only handfuls of bird atlas records, and it took 16 years from 2007 to 2023 make them! You need to focus to find them on the map, and you need to be lucky to find them while you are birding!
SABAP2 distribution map for Lesser Black-backed Gull, downloaded 5 April 2023. Details for map interpretation here.
This is a rare species in South Africa, so the pentads in which it occurs are mostly shaded yellow. They are scattered across the interior (at large wetlands), and along the coastline of KwaZulu-Natal (e.g. St Lucia, Durban) and the Eastern Cape (e.g. Algoa Bay, Kromme River Estuary).
There were 18 records of Lesser Black-backed Gull in the BirdPix section of the Virtual Museum on 5 April 2023. Please help increase this number by uploading your photographs of this species to the Virtual MuseumBirdPix records for Lesser Black-backed Gull in the Virtual Museum
The 18 BirdPix records for Lesser Black-backed Gull in the Virtual Museum are from the Sudan (on the Nile River at Khartoum, Zambia, large freshwater wetlands in the interior of South Africa, and at large intertidal wetlands along the coastline of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
On this map of the global distribution, the breeding area is shaded orange, and the main non-breeding areas are shaded blue. It breeds in northern Eurasia and migrates southwards after breeding. Most birds stay in the northern hemisphere, and only small numbers move as far south as southern Africa. This map suggests that the southernmost part of the regular non-breeding distribution is along the east coast of Africa. North of about Durban, the distribution of Kelp Gulls starts to fade out, with the northernmost records ending at Maputo Bay in southern Mozambique. Any large gull in northern KwaZulu-Natal needs to be examined carefully!
Most sightings are between October and March, but some birds stay here throughout the year. Records are sporadic in both space and time.
This species was not included in the first two editions of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, published in 1940 and 1957. It was admitted for the first time in the third edition in 1970! Even then it said: “Recorded from the Zambesi River and the Caprivi”. The fourth edition in 1978 says the same, and here is the distribution map for the Kelp Gull in the 1978 edition of Roberts:
Kelp Gull distribution map from the 1978 edition of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa
It is quite a surprise that it took so long to grasp that all the arrows to wetlands in the interior were actually not Kelp Gulls at all. In 1952, 26 years earlier, there is an extraordinarily politely worded paper in the journal Ostrich (25: 123–124) which asks the question: “Does the European Lesser Black-backed Gull migrate to South Africa?” It gently points out that sight records, claimed to be Kelp Gulls, on the highveld at Springs (Gauteng) in 1947 and at Barberspan (North West Province) in 1951 and 1952, were “a surprise”. “It seems,” says RM Harwin, “that some sorting-out of these records is necessary.” He showed, on balance of probabilities, that a Kelp Gull reaching the highveld from the coast was less likely than a Lesser Black-backed Gull reaching this area from the north. It took a long time to do that re-assessment. It was finally conceded in Roberts 5 in 1985 that RM Harwin had been right all along, and that the “Kelp Gulls” in the interior had been misidentified!
What is clear is that the frequency of records of the migrant gull in the interior has increased. This is most likely not only because there are more birders, but is also genuinely attributable to the proliferation of large dams and other artificial wetlands across the interior of southern Africa.
More common names: Kleinswartrugmeeuw (Afrikaans), Goéland brun (French), Heringsmöwe (German), Gaivota-d’asa-escura (Portuguese), Gaviota (Spanish), Kleine mantelmeeuw, Baltische mantelmeeuw (Dutch)
Photographic acknowledgements: The photographs in this identification guide are from the BDI Virtual Museum. The photographers continue to own the copyright on these images.
List of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Underhill LG 2023. Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2023/04/06/lesser-black-backed-gull-larus-fuscus/
What do we learn from bird ringing? The first, quick and obvious answer is that ringing helps us understand movement patterns of birds. The more subtle answer is that it provides estimates of survival rates; these are estimated by statistical methods and are important because they help us understand the balance between births and deaths. The third answer lies in the data we collect off the bird while we are handling it. Fourthly, when bird ringing is conducted for many years at a single site, we discover trends; for example, we learn how the timing of migration through Europe is changing in response to climate change. The value of bird ringing is awesome.
What do we learn about bird movements from ringing?
Until quite recently, bird ringing was the only way to discover the secrets of migration. Where does a Barn Swallow that breeds in Denmark go to escape the northern winter? This is an important question for Danish conservation biologists because, if they want to maintain the breeding population in their country, they need to know what part of the non-breeding range they should motivate for conservation resources to be invested in order to protect “their” swallows. This question applies in the opposite direction too. If we are going to maintain populations of Barn Swallows in KwaZulu-Natal, we need to know where they breed, so we can motivate for their protection. Even though these questions of linkages between breeding, staging and non-breeding areas are also answered by satellite tracking and geolocators, bird ringing remains an important source of movement information. Compared to other methods, ringing is inexpensive and relatively non-intrusive.
There are so many examples of movements of Barn Swallows between Europe and Africa that when you use lines to join the places where the bird was ringed and where the ring was “recovered” (ie the bird was retrapped or found dead), the map is a total mess. So we use the Red Knot Calidris canutus to illustrate the patterns that emerge. Most ringing of Knots in South Africa was done at Langebaan Lagoon, West Coast National Park, Western Cape. The lines join the places of ringing and recovery, and do not imply that the bird flew along this route!
What is striking about this map is that there are no recoveries of Red Knots in the Middle East or around the Black Sea. The map suggests that they are migrating along the west coasts of Africa and Europe and then heading east via Scandinavia. The breeding area that they are heading for is in Siberia, which has extremely few people so it is not unexpected that there are no “recoveries” during the breeding season. The results emerging from the ringing of other waders (e.g. Curlew Sandpipers Calidris ferruginea and Little Stint Calidris minuta) shows that they migrate to Siberia through the Middle East.
So we know a huge amount about bird migration between Eurasia and Africa. By comparison, we know rather little about the movement patterns of species such as White-throated SwallowHirundo albigullaris. This swallow arrives in southern Africa in August and September, breeds mostly from October to December, and then heads off north in March and April. We know they go to “central Africa”, but that is really vague. There are no recoveries of ringed birds, even though large numbers have been ringed in southern Africa.
Cape SugarbirdsPromerops cafer are endemic to the Fynbos Biome of the Western Cape, South Africa. This is a habitat which is dependent on fire; if Fynbos doesn’t burn, it becomes moribund after about 15 years. Fire resets the Fynbos clock, with the first years after the fire being the most productive. Almost wherever and whenever a patch of proteas is in flower in the Fynbos, there are sugarbirds present. When the flowering period is over, the sugarbirds move off. But we have no idea where they go. And we have no idea of the patterns of movement that get them from one flowering patch to the next over a year. One possibility is that there is a collection of say six or more patches where proteas are flowering in succession through the year, with the sugarbirds moving from patch to patch in an annual rotation. But what happens when there is the inevitable fire, and the grove of yellow pincushions that they have come to rely on in October and November gets burnt? How do they adapt to this disruption? Knowing how they do this is an important conservation concern for sugarbirds. It is remarkable that we know the details of bird movements between the continents, but remarkably little about movements at small scales!
Once this yellow pincushion stops flowering this male Cape Sugarbird will need to find nectar food somewhere else. We don’t yet understand their patterns of movement! Kleinmond, Western Cape, 24 December 2022
How does bird ringing help us estimate survival rates?
Professor George Seber at the University of Auckland in New Zealand did the complicated mathematical statistics to show how numbers of retraps of ringed birds over a period of years could be used to make estimates of the annual survival rates. Subsequently, an academic industry has been developed, making improvements and refinements to the original method. For example, an early extension enabled us to obtain separate survival estimates for young birds, which are almost invariably considerably less than adults. Another extension modified the statistics so that survival estimates were available for each calendar year, so it became possible to discover the impact of a drought (in Africa) or a particularly cold winter (in Europe) on survival. These statistical methods produce better answers if the number of birds ringed is large (and consistent between years), and if the ringing operation is kept going for many years.
The importance of having survival rates is that it enables conservation biologists to investigate whether the production of fledglings is sufficient to balance mortality, and to work out whether the population of a species is increasing or decreasing. For example, Phil Hockey estimated that every breeding pair of African Oystercatchers needs to produce, on average, 0.35 young per year in order to maintain a stable population. In practice, this means that a pair of oystercatchers needs to raise one chick every three years! The African Oystercatcher is one of a tiny number of species for which this really valuable statistic has been worked out.
The annual survival rate for adult African Oystercatchers is 96%. We are still, in 2023, seeing oystercatchers on Robben Island which we know were ringed in 2002, 21 years ago. Is this a surprise? The proportion of oystercatchers which survive 21 years is estimated by multiplying the survival rate (expressed as a proportion, i.e. 0.96) by itself 21 times: 0.96 x 0.96 x … x 0.96 = 0.42. So an annual survival of 96% is equivalent to a 21 year survival of 42%. This means that 42% of the African Oystercatchers which were breeding 21 years ago are still breeding. Because the survival rate is so large, they have (on average) lots of breeding seasons, and don’t need to be very successful at breeding to keep the population stable.
The ring was put onto this African Oystercatcher in 2001. It was still on the same territory on Robben Island on 21 January 2023. (Oystercatchers are ringed above the “knee” because, if the ring is placed on the tarsus between the “knee” and the “foot”, the ring numbers wear away as a result of abrasion with the rocky shore! This happens even with stainless steel rings.)
In contrast, the adult survival rate for African Penguins is about 80%. This means that if you have 1000 penguins in January 2002, you can expect 800 to still be alive in January 2003. A year later, January 2003, there’ll be 640. Only nine of these 1000 birds would still be expected to be alive in January 2023. A survival rate of 80% is alarmingly small for a bird as large as an African Penguin, and it is this low survival rate which is at the heart of the conservation problems of this species. Breeding productivity is not matching the mortality rate.
Why is important to know the age at which birds of a species start breeding?
Age at first breeding is one of the really critical bits of information for the conservation of a species. Suppose the survival rate of breeding adults of a bird species is 90%. If you have 1000 adult birds of a species at the start of the year, 900 survive, and 100 die. How many fledglings need to be produced each year so that when they reach breeding age, there are 100 recruits into the adult population? This is what is needed to maintain a stable population. Suppose 400 fledglings are produced in a year. Suppose survival to age one year is 25%. There will be 100 left after the year. If these birds are recruited into the adult breeding population, we will have replaced the birds that have died. But if they breed for the first time after two years, or three years, then there will be fewer than 100 birds to recruit into the breeding population, and overall numbers will steadily decrease. So age at first breeding is an important piece of information. The easiest way to find this out is by ringing young birds and doing the hard follow-up work to check when they enter the breeding population. Even though it is the “easiest” way, it requires dedicated fieldwork by ringers to discover this nugget of information.
What information can we obtain while we have the bird “in the hand”?
This information is on p 640 of Roberts 7. It provides the measurements and mass of Leach’s Storm Petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa:
Where does this information come from? There was a period in the late 1990s when Leach’s Storm Petrels were discovered breeding for a few years on Dassen Island and Dyer Island. We made a special effort to ring these birds, and the results were published in a paper in a journal callde the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa; you can download it. This table, which summarizes the measurements made during ringing, comes out of the paper:
The information in this table was carried over into Roberts7 (with the appropriate acknowledgements!). Ultimately, most of the measurement data in ornithological handbooks globally is summarized from data collected by bird ringers.
One of the standard measurements collected by ringers is mass. We assembled all the masses collected by members of the Western Cape Wader Study Group from Red Knots Calidris canutus while they were being ringed, and plotted them:
Masses of adult Red Knots Calidris canutus in South Africa
The Red Knots that visit South Africa breed on the Siberian tundra, about 13,000 km from Langebaan Lagoon, in the West Coast National Park, where most of these birds were caught. They are long distance migrants. The line in this plot is a statistical “smoother”, designed to lead the eye through the “message” that the plot conveys. From the time they arrive until around the end of February, the average mass hovers around 130 g. Then, quite suddenly, they start increasing in mass. This is mostly fat, fuel for the arduous journey to the Siberian tundra that lies ahead of them.
A Red Knot, in full breeding plumage, on its nest on the Siberian tundra. Lake Pronchishcheva, Taimyr Peninsula, Russia, July 1991
Moult
Feathers are light and strong, but they are steadily degraded by exposure to sunlight and by flight. For most bird species they are replaced on an annual basis, a process called moult. Part of the training to become a bird ringer is to learn how to record moult, and how to score the progress of moult of the primaries, the feathers on the outsides of the wings, the ones that are most important for flight. Most species have either 9 or 10 conspicuous primaries. Those that are old are scored a 0, and those that are new are scored 5. Scores of 1 to 4 are given to growing primaries, so the moult score of a bird near the start of moult might look like 55410 00000; the first two primaries are new, the next two are growing, and the rest are old. For a species like the Red Knot, the outer primaries are much larger than the inner primaries, so we did the arithmetic to convert the moult score into “percent feather mass grown”, and we came up with a plot that looks like this:
Primary moult of Red Knots in South Africa
Each dot represents the progress with moult for a bird ringed on a date. The Underhill-Zucchini moult model then estimates the average starting date for the primary moult of Red Knots in South Africa as 25 October, the duration as 95 days, with an average end date of 28 January. The dotted lines ought to enclose about 95% of the moult scores. Comparing this plot with the one above for mass, it is clear that the average Red Knot migrating to South Africa has about a month of “holiday” between the end of primary moult and start to fuel for migration. This information all contributes to our understanding of the conservation requirements of this species … and all of it comes from bird ringing.
Lots more paragraphs could follow here! Sometimes there is a need for samples to be collected for genetic studies. Ringers are excellently placed to help! Two citizen scientist bird ringers, Felicity Ellmore and Ursula Bryson, were recruited by an international team of researchers to collect tiny feather samples from “African Reed Warblers” for South Africa and Namibia respectively. The upshot of this project was the decision to merge the “African Reed Warbler” and the “European Reed Warbler” into a single species, the Common Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus. Here is the link to the paper.
What is the value of having a long-term ringing station?
Bird ringers in Europe (and bird banders in North America) are familiar with the concept of a “bird observatory”. The concept even has an article in Wikipedia; no bird observatories in Africa are listed. Most bird observatories are also ringing stations.
In September 1960, an undergraduate student at the University of Warsaw, named Przemysław Busse, initiated standardized bird ringing to study southward migration along the coast of the Baltic Sea, Poland. A year later it was called Operation Baltic. The project grew and expanded to study both spring and autumn migration at three ringing stations along the Polish coast. The young student graduated through the academic hierarchy to become Professor Busse, Head of the Bird Migration Research Station (BMRS), in the Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, Poland. When he retired, Dr Magda Remisiewicz, who had been a PhD student of Professor Busse’s and then a post-doc at the University of Cape Town, took over as Head of the BMRS. One of her first initiatives was to turn the early paper records into files on computers! It is a rich database.
In the non-breeding season, Willow Warblers Phylloscupus trochilus spread out over much of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. This photo was taken by Tony Archer in November 2017 in Klerksdorp, North-West Province, South Africa. It is BirdPix record 46564
It is well known that northwards migration through Europe to the breeding grounds of the small warblers, for example, is getting earlier. All this is true at the ringing stations in Poland as well. But Magda spotted that there is also a huge amount of annual variation in the timing of migration. Magda wanted to understand this. We developed an index of earlyness/lateness in the migration each year for the Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus, and then tried to relate this to the large scale climate indices which the warblers had experienced during their travels in the previous 12 months. We used things like the South Oscillation Index, which drives El Nino/La Nina, and which plays a key role in how much rain falls in southern Africa. We quickly hit the jackpot, and found a statistical model that “explained” two-thirds of the annual variation in the timing of the passage of Willow Warblers through Poland. There is more detail in this blog. The paper itself is open access, and so are a second and third of the same theme. These papers make a valuable contribution to understanding the impact of climate change on bird migration.
What made these papers possible was systematic and consistent bird ringing over a period of decades at a bird ringing station. This is what we need to emulate!
The value of bird ringing
Ultimately, the fundamental question runs like this: “Does bird ringing make an important contribution to bird research and conservation? Or is it simply a kind of hobby for a select group of bird watchers?” The problem is with the word “OR”. The answer to both questions is YES. Bird ringing makes a vital contribution to the study of the population dynamics and movements of birds, and how these things are changing as a result of development and climate change. A lot of the data for this research is collected by a carefully-trained group of citizen scientists, whose passion is working with birds for the ultimate objective of conservation. They consider working with birds to be a privilege and a responsibility.
Bird ringers are mostly citizen scientists who make a huge contribution to research and conservation through pooling their data. For long-distance migrants, this information needs to be shared internationally
Bird ringing courses
The Biodiversity and Development Institute coordinates bird ringing events in South Africa, and also helps at the Alte Kalköfen Bird Observatory in Namibia. Many of these events have reports, and you can find them here. There is a list of future events here.
Underhill LG 2023. The value of bird ringing to research and conservation. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/03/31/the-value-of-bird-ringing-to-research-and-conservation/
Cover image: Orange River White-eye by Sybrand Venter – Carnarvon District, Northern Cape – BirdPix No. 229235
Identification
The Orange River White-eye is the most distinctively marked white-eye in the region. Its most distinguishing feature is the peach-coloured flanks, which are diagnostic. The upperparts are dull olive green. The throat is bright yellow, while the vent is a duller shade of yellow. The broad, white eye-ring is broken by a small black line extending from the base of the beak to the eye. There is a conspicuous yellow supra-loral stripe in front of the eye.
The sexes are alike and the juveniles are similar but with duller plumage.
It is most similar to the Cape White-eye Zosterops virens and the two were once considered conspecific. to be a single species. The Cape White-eye differs in lacking the peach-coloured flanks. It instead has grey to green undersides which contrast with the yellow throat.
The Orange River White-eye is common to very common and is endemic to Southern Africa. It occurs in a broad swathe from northern to southern Namibia. In South Africa, it is found in the Western Cape, throughout much of the Northern Cape, most of the Free State and parts of North West Province. It is closely linked to the Orange and Vaal River catchments. In the Northern Cape it occurs mainly along the Orange River and its tributaries but has adapted to towns, gardens and farmyards in the semi-arid Karoo.
SABAP2 distribution map for Orange River White-eye (Zosterops pallidus) – February 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
Habitat
The Orange River White-eye is commonly associated with wooded watercourses and drainage lines, where it inhabits thickets with trees and thorny scrub. It is frequent in wooded gardens, parks and towns, favouring poplar (Populus spp) groves, Eucalyptus plantations and rose gardens.
The Orange River White-eye is restless and elusive, moving in small flocks through the foliage. When one area has been gleaned of food, the leader flits to another tree and the remaining flock members follow in ones and twos. Probes in crevices and under bark, and peers under leaves, twigs and branches. Sometimes hangs upside down from a branch to reach food. Most insects are gleaned from leaf surfaces. It is reported to mingle with parties of Cape White-eye at some sites. It frequently allopreens.
The diet consists mainly of invertebrates and fruit. It frequently eats hard, dry currant (Searsia spp) berries; these plants are well represented in riverine vegetation throughout its range.
Little is known about the breeding habits of this species. It is likely to be monogamous and a solitary nester. It is known to breed during the summer months. Egg laying has been recorded from October to March. A typical clutch consists of three unmarked blue eggs; however, the incubation, nestling and fledging periods are unrecorded. Nesting data are probably similar to those of the Cape White-eye (Zosterops virens).
Species text adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.
The use of photographs by Doug Harebottle, Janet du Plooy, Marius Meiring, Rick Nuttall, Sybrand Venter and Toby Esplin is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names: Gariepglasogie (Afrikaans); Manqiti (Tswana); Zostérops du fleuve Orange (French); Kaapse Brilvogel (Dutch).
List of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. Orange River White-Eye Zosterops pallidus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/03/20/orange-river-white-eye-zosterops-pallidus/
The BDI and Birds4Africa run bird ringing courses in South Africa regularly, and we aim for at least four per year. The aim here is to give a broad overview of what to anticipate. The courses are led by Dieter Oschadleus. We keep the list of planned courses up to date at Upcoming Events on the BDI home page. If you have a group of anything up to eight or so people that would like to attend, let us know and we can organise a special course for the group! An overview and summary of all our past courses and ringing events is here.
Who should attend?
The bird ringing courses are designed to cater for trainee ringers with any level of experience. These courses will further your training, provide good theoretical background, and opportunities to learn from others. Note that a one-week course is far from enough to become a qualified ringer, but it is a great boost to be ringing every day for a week.
People who have never been involved with bird ringing are also welcome to attend. We will help you take your first birds out of mistnets, and show you the basics of bird ringing, putting a ring on and taking measurements.
Qualified ringers, both local and international are invited to participate, and even bring their own equipment (but see below). The attraction is to share experiences, help with training, and learn from others. This is a great opportunity to enjoy a week of ringing at amazing ringing sites, and hopefully get to handle new species.
What will the daily programme look like?
On arrival on Day 1, the first thing is to settle in to accommodation. It is best to aim to arrive just after lunch time. In the mid-afternoon, we will set up nets, and start ringing. At around sunset, we will close the nets. Then it is supper time!
From Day 2 onwards, we will open nets at dawn – which varies through the year. Coffee will be available. We will ringing until around 10 a.m.; this is flexible depending on the catch rate etc. Then we will have brunch. Sometimes breakfast or brunch is earlier with shifts so that we can keep ringing until midday, but this depends on conditions, and especially temperature – we stop if it gets very hot. The bottom line is that we are flexible.
The middle part of the day is a rest time.
In the afternoons we have practical and information sessions, and/or data entry. We cover topics such as mapwork, putting up nets, trapping methods, and all the other things that a ringer needs to know. There will be opportunities for talks on the scientific results that have emerged from bird ringing. Visiting ringers might want to tell the group about experiences back home.
If conditions permit, we will do some more ringing in the late afternoon, followed by supper.
At some sites, there are opportunities for night ringing after supper. If the course is at the New Holme Lodge, there will be an opportunity to join a “Shy Five Night Drives.” Not only do you have an excellent chance to see aardvark and aardwolf, you can hope to see nightjars, owls, and other birds.
We will move between ringing sites and bird catching techniques. So each day is not a replay of the previous days. This will involve taking nets down and setting them up at different places.
Weather is unpredictable. We cannot usually ring when it is very hot, raining or excessively windy. At most sites, the early mornings are usually best for bird ringing, with the middle part of the day and afternoons often hot and windy, make ringing either unrewarding or impossible. If there are rainy days, we will try to ring during the times when the rain stops, and use the rainy periods for data entry and theory.
Typically, we catch several hundred birds of 30-40 different species during a course, but there are no guarantees with ringing. Invariably, there is the excitement of seldom caught species.
At our ringing sites, passerines usually moult from December to March. Trainees at bird ringing courses during this period will learn the important skill of scoring primary moult.
We won’t be ringing on the final morning. We will have breakfast and depart.
What does a course cost?
This varies with the venue, and depends on the type of accommodation offered. The fees include the course itself, plus accommodation, supper and breakfast on Days 1 and 7 respectively and meals daily on Days 2-6. Also included are the use of ringing equipment and rings. At New Holme, Hanover in the Karoo, the price includes a Shy Five Night Drive.
Transport to and from the ringing courses is not included.
Usually accommodation is in rooms, sharing or single, at the ringing site. At some of the sites, it is feasible to camp, or bring a caravan. Mostly meals are prepared. But occasionally, to bring costs down, we will run courses where we take it in turns to prepare meals.
What should I bring?
• Outdoor clothes – note that handling birds means getting some bird droppings on you. • Warm clothes, even in summer, some early mornings may be cool. • If you have gumboots, bring them along for mistnetting at water edges. If you don’t have gumboots, no need to get them because there will be some people who can check nets in shallow water. • Strong, closed shoes are usually advised, although casual crocs are useful for garden ringing. • Hat, sun cream, and water bottle • Binoculars and camera
SAFRING Ringers are welcome to bring their own ringing equipment. If you bring your own rings, please obtain a provincial permit in advance of the course.
International ringers may not use rings from other schemes in South Africa, and do not need to bring any equipment (but welcome to bring own pliers or measuring items if you prefer using your own).
Do the bird ringing courses in South Africa contribute to research?
Yes. At each of our sites we are building a body of data that can be used for the study of survival and movements. We are particularly interested in moult, and how the timing of primary moult varies between years. In fact, for most of the species we handle, little is known about moult.
Sometimes the ringing course will make a contribution to a specific research projects. This might involve colour ringing to make individual birds easily recognisable.
I’ve been to a ringing course, should I come again?
No two courses are the same!
While the basic structure of each courses is similar, each course is different – there are different people attending, each person adds a unique perspective. Although the primary species at a site remain fairly constant through, different special birds are caught on each course, even when the same place is visited a month later. Each season brings different birds and opportunities, and new learning opportunities. The sites we uses for the training courses are also different.
So if you have attended one of our courses and you enjoyed it, try attending one at a different site or different time of year. Also invite anyone else that may be interested!
Although we try to catch as many birds as possible of as many species as feasible, we operate within ethical considerations and the various constraints imposed by weather and safety. The birds are shared so that all participants equally take part. Some days we spend catching special birds where the catch rate is much lower, but the rewards of handling special species are great. Trainees need to be extracting more or less as many birds as they are ringing from mistnets. SAFRING ringers and trainees with a fair bit of experience, around 200 birds or more ringed, are encouraged to enter their ringing data daily, so that the ringing data is up to date by the end of the course (bring a laptop or tablet if you have one, for data entry, else you can use one on site).
If you are in the Western Cape, and the seagull has grey wings, then with safety** you can call it a Hartlaub’s Gull. If the back is black, it’s almost certainly a Kelp Gull.
Young Hartlaub’s Gulls have a brown pattern on the feathers on the back. These patterned feathers get replaced one by one during the first year or so, and the birds then have plain grey wings like the adults.
** The level of “safety” in the Western Cape is about 99.9%! There are only handfuls of a closely related species, the Grey-headed Gull, in the Western Cape. But what is even worse is that these two gulls interbreed. So there are some hybrids in the mix. This is what makes birding fascinating.
On the Namibian coastline there are more Hartlaub’s Gulls than Grey-headed Gulls (and quite a lot of hybrids). In the Eastern Cape most of the gulls are Grey-headed. In KwaZulu-Natal, Hartlaub’s Gull is a rare vagrant.
Habitat
Mainly on the coastline, and at wetlands close to the coast.
Distribution
SABAP2 distribution map, downloaded 14 June 2021
In Namibia, they occur almost anywhere along the coast; most are in the Lüderitz area, and along the coastline from Walvis Bay Lagoon northwards to Swakopmund.
Gallery
This is the easternmost record of Hartlaub’s Gull in the Virtual Museum, within the normal range. Farther east, there are two records in KwaZulu-Natal, where it is recorded from time to time. This photo was taken on the Swartkops Estuary, Algoa Bay:
BirdPix record of Hartlaub’s Gull, in the Eastern Cape
The two KwaZulu-Natal records can be viewed here and here!
And below is the northernmost record of Hartlaub’s Gull in the Virtual Museum. The bird was at the Mile 4 Saltworks, which is (well, obviously) four miles north of Swakopmund, in Namibia. This is the limit of the regular range of this species. Farther north, they occur just occasionally. This photo shows a young bird, with the juvenile feathers on the wing coverts mostly replaced by the plain grey adult feathers. There is also one brown-tipped flight feather left in the wing. The bill and legs are near the black end of the red to black continuum.
Northernmost BirdPix record of Hartlaub’s Gull, at Mile 4 Saltworks, just north of Swakopmund, Namibia. It is a young bird. Photo Etienne Marais
Hartlaub’s Gulls mostly breed in large colonies on the offshore islands; sometimes the colonies consist of thousands of pairs of birds:
More common names: Hartlaubse meeu (Afrikaans), Mouette de Hartlaub (French), Hartlaubmöwe (German), Gaivota de Hartlaub (Portuguese), Gaviota plateada surafricana (Spanish)
Photographic acknowledgements: Most of the photographs in this identification guide are from the BDI Virtual Museum. The photographers continue to own the copyright on these images.
List of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Underhill LG 2023. Hartlaub’s Gull Chroicocephalus hartlaubii. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2023/03/12/hartlaubs-gull-chroicocephalus-hartlaubii/.
Overall colouration is sandy grey-brown. The underparts are uniform grey-brown. The mantle, scapulars and wing coverts are indistinctly mottled with diffuse grey, buff and black blotches.
The head and neck carry the most distinctive markings. There is a small black patch on the nape and a more prominent black patch on the throat. The face is plain grey-brown and unmarked. The bill is dark greyish with a pale pink base.
The sexes are similar but males are slightly larger and have more extensive black on the throat, extending onto the fore-neck.
Juveniles resemble the adults but have scattered whitish blotches on the body, head and neck. The undersides are paler with some indistinct darker barring.
The Karoo Korhaan varies from common to uncommon, depending on location. It is endemic to Southern Africa and is confined to western South Africa and Southern Namibia.
The Karoo Korhaan is not considered threatened. It is thought that this species has increased in abundance in the Karoo owing to livestock grazing practices, as it favours disturbed conditions. The South African population has been estimated at hundreds of thousands of individuals.
SABAP2 distribution map for Karoo Korhaan (Eupodotis vigorsii) – March 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
Habitat
The Karoo Korhaan occurs in dwarf shrublands on the open plains of the semi-arid Karoo. It favours stony ground in flat to undulating terrain. Within this region it is most common throughout the Nama Karoo. It is also common in the Grassy Karoo ecotone between the grassland and Karoo biomes. It is less common in, and is absent from large areas of, the winter-rainfall Succulent Karoo. It has also colonised the planted pastures and cereal croplands along the southern coast of the Western Cape in the fynbos biome. This is the only region where it is found outside karroid vegetation.
Usually encountered in pairs, occasionally in groups of three to five birds, and very rarely solitarily. the Karoo Korhaan is easily overlooked due to its cryptic plumage. This is compensated for by its loud and frequent vocalizations, which are somewhat frog-like.
It is a sedentary resident. Karoo Korhaans are more conspicuous during the winter months due to increased activity and sparser vegetation at this time. Breeding birds become very secretive during the summer months.
Forages by walking and pecking on or close to the ground. Consumes a range of invertebrates (mainly insects and arachnids), small reptiles and a much vegetable matter (seeds, pods, fruits, flowers, leaves and bulbs).
Drinks in the mornings and evenings when water is available.
The Karoo Korhaan is monogamous, breeding in pairs. The occasional presence of extended family groups may indicate some cooperative breeding. They are territorial and groups defend their territories throughout the year. Territorial males actively fight by flapping their wings and kicking each other.
Karoo Korhaan (Eupodotis vigorsii) – Karoo National Park, Western Cape Photo by Desire Darling
Breeding has been recorded from July to April but mostly takes place between October and March during the summer months.
A single egg is laid per clutch. No true nest is constructed and the egg is laid in a shallow scrape directly on the ground. The site is sometimes lined with a ring of stones or pebbles.
Incubation duties are performed entirely by the female, although the male remains nearby. The chick is highly precocial and the female and chick join up with the male shortly after hatching.
Further Resources
This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.
The use of photographs by Alan Collett, Desire Darling, Johan and Estelle van Rooyen, Rick Nuttall and Tino Herselman is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names: Vaalkorhaan (Afrikaans); Zwartkintrap (Dutch); Outarde de Vigors (French); Namatrappe (German); Abetarda do Karoo (Portuguese).
A list of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. Karoo Korhaan (Eupodotis vigorsii). Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/03/07/karoo-korhaan-eupodotis-vigorsii/
Cover image of Ludwig’s Bustard by Rick Nuttall – Murraysburg district, Western Cape – BirdPix No. 192436
Identification
The Ludwig’s Bustard is a relatively large and fairly conspicuous species, especially in flight and when the males are calling and displaying.
In males, the crown, face and fore-neck are dark sooty brown. The folded wings are intricately patterned in various shades of brown. The wing coverts are brown and white. The hind-neck is bright orange-brown and the sides of the neck and the entire belly are white.
This species is often confused with Denham’s Bustard (Neotis denhami). Denham’s Bustard is larger, has a pale grey fore-neck, a darker, more chestnut hind-neck and a black and white-striped crown and face.
In flight Ludwig’s Bustard shows white inner primaries and minimal white on the coverts. In Denham’s Bustard the coverts are mostly white.
Ludwig’s Bustard (Neotis ludwigii) In flight shows white inner primaries and minimal white on the coverts. Near Petrusburg , Free State Photo by Rick Nuttall
Carl Ferdinand Heinrichvon Ludwig, in whose honour this species was named, was a citizen scientist. He was born in Germany in 1784, trained as a pharmacist, and came to a post in Cape Town in 1805. By 1807, he was one of nine official pharmacists in Cape Town. He did lots of activities two centuries ago which today would be described as citizen science initiatives. You can read more about him here. He died in Cape Town in 1847.
Distribution
Ludwig’s Bustard is scarce to locally common and is near-endemic to southern Africa. Its range extends marginally into south-western Angola. It occurs in southern and western Namibia, extreme south-western Botswana, and widely in central and western South Africa. It is a marginal, non-breeding visitor to Lesotho. In the Western Cape, it is largely confined to the Karoo and Namaqualand, south to the West Coast National Park. It penetrates beyond the Karoo into the fynbos biome mainly during dry winters.
Ludwig’s Bustard is currently listed as Vulnerable. They are highly prone to collisions with overhead transmission lines and often get tangled up in jackal-proof fencing. Hatching success is also low. Despite this there is no evidence of any major range changes. Its distribution overlaps slightly with Denham’s Bustard in the Western and Eastern Cape.
SABAP2 distribution map for Ludwig’s BustardNeotis ludwigii – February 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
Habitat
Ludwig’s Bustard inhabits dry open plains, from grassland to desert.
It is most numerous in the arid and semi-arid dwarf shrublands of Namibia and the Karoo. It also frequents the drier western grasslands in South Africa and arid woodlands of the southern Kalahari. It also makes occasional use of agricultural areas in the fynbos biome of the Western Cape.
Often frequents bare open areas within these habitats such as gravel plains and dry watercourses, especially on calcrete. May gather in numbers to forage at dry pans and dams especially when there is a flush of short, green vegetation after the water dries.
Usually found singly or in groups. Small groups of three or four birds are normal but larger groupings of up to 36 birds are regular. The largest recorded group size is 270 birds but this is exceptional. Larger groups are not cohesive but rather loose aggregations at a concentrated food source such as locust swarms or termite alates. They are partially migratory and probably nomadic. Their movements are largely influenced by rainfall.
Occasionally forages alongside Kori Bustard and has been known to join groups of Denham’s Bustard in areas of overlap. Spends most of its time foraging by walking slowly and pecking at the ground but will run after large insects. Ludwig’s Bustard is omnivorous and the diet consists of arthropods and vertebrates as well as a range of plant material. Arthropod prey includes locusts, beetles, ants, termites, flies, centipedes, spiders, scorpions etc. Vertebrates taken include rodents and reptiles and they consume a fair amount of vegetable matter such as seeds, berries, leaves and bulbs.
They seldom drink water, because they obtain most of their moisture requirement from the food they eat.
Ludwig’s Bustards are polygynous whereby males mate with multiple females during the breeding season. Males establish regularly used lek sites where they display competitively in order to entice females for mating. Leks are mostly situated in prominent positions such as on a rocky ridge. Each lek site holds from one to three males, each of whom defends his immediate vicinity from rivals through complex posturing. Displaying males are normally spaced about 300 m apart.
Displaying starts at or before first light and continues for two to three hours. Males perform what is known as a ‘balloon’ display. To begin, the male stands tall with wings drooped and the tail held level. He then erects his neck and breast feathers and inflates the neck with air. After a pause the air is then forcibly expelled from the inflated oesophagus. The ‘balloon’ serves to resonate and amplify the booming call over a great distance. This display also serves a visual function and is conspicuous from a good distance. The display is usually also accompanied by foot stamping. Displaying often resumes in the late afternoon and may continue up to 30 minutes after dark.
Ludwig’s Bustard (Neotis ludwigii) The lek site is typically situated on a raised, rocky ridge. Carnarvon district, Northern Cape Photo by Ryan Tippett
Attracted females fly or walk to display sites, either singly or in groups of up to three birds. Displaying lasts around six weeks following spring rains.
Breeding mostly takes place between August and December in South Africa and during March in Namibia.
One or two eggs are laid per clutch and no nest is constructed. The eggs are well camouflaged and are laid in the open on bare ground, or in a shallow scrape, often among stones. All incubation and parental care is performed by the female. The incubation and fledging periods are unrecorded and the chicks are highly precocial.
Further Resources
This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.
The use of photographs by Alan Collett, Desire Darling, Johan and Estelle van Rooyen, Rick Nuttall and Tino Herselman is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names: Ludwigse pou (Afrikaans); Iseme (Xhosa); Khupa (South Sotho); Ludwig-trap (Dutch); Outarde de Ludwig (French); Ludwigstrappe (German); Abetarda de Ludwig (Portuguese).
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. Ludwig’s Bustard (Neotis ludwigii). Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available Online at http://thebdi.org/2023/02/28/ludwigs-bustard-neotis-ludwigii/
List of bird species in this format is available here.
Cover image: Karoo Lark by Gerald Wingate – Ceres district, Western Cape – BirdPix No. 217927
Identification
The Karoo Lark is a small, attractive species with a less robust and more delicate build than other similar larks. The bill is relatively slender and somewhat decurved.
The facial markings are well defined. The supercilium and the line under the eye form a broad white eye-ring with a black stripe through the middle. Black malar and moustachial stripes are prominent and the ear coverts are dark rufous to brown.
Upperpart colouration is highly variable, ranging from pale sandy brown to dark brown, to rich brick red, and with several shades in-between. Despite this variability, the upperparts are normally well streaked. The underparts are white and are strongly marked. The Karoo Lark has streaked flanks which distinguish it from the similar Red Lark and Barlow’s Lark, both of which normally have unmarked flanks.
Males are larger than females but are otherwise alike.
Juveniles have white tips to the feathers on the upperparts, giving them a spotted appearance.
The Karoo Lark is a South African endemic. It is restricted to parts of the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape provinces. It is fairly common in the southern and western Karoo as well as in strandveld along the west coast. It is less common in the colder, high elevation shrublands of the central Karoo.
The range of the Karoo Lark has contracted locally in the southern parts of the Western Cape owing to agriculture. The transformation of renosterveld into wheat lands has undoubtedly removed much of its habitat. Karoo Lark populations may be growing in the northeast of its range, due to local increases in shrubs as a result of overgrazing. It is not adequately protected in existing nature reserves and should be a candidate for conservation attention. Despite this the Karoo Lark is not considered to be threatened.
SABAP2 distribution map for Karoo Lark (Calendulauda albescens) – February 2023. Details for map interpretation can be found here.
Habitat
The Karoo Lark prefers relatively tall, open shrublands on sandy soils. This includes dry coastal fynbos, strandveld and Karroid dwarf-shrublands. It occurs in both the Winter and Summer rainfall regions of the Karoo. In stony regions of the Karoo it is largely restricted to dry watercourses where the substrate is sandier and the vegetation may be taller. The Karoo lark also occurs in sparsely vegetated fallow fields but avoids land being actively farmed. It is less common in short shrublands, for example where heavy grazing has trampled the veld.
Habitat – Near Carnarvon, Northern Cape. Note the sandy soil and presence of taller bushes and shrubs. Photo by Ryan Tippett
Behaviour
The Karoo Lark may be solitary or found in pairs. It forages on the ground and walks slowly with a hunched posture. Frequently digs with its bill, especially around the base of shrubs. Feeds primarily on seeds, insects and berries. Runs between shrubs in a mouse-like fashion when disturbed, or flies up to perch on a bush.
During display the male sings from the top of a bush or in flight. In display flight the male rises on rapidly beating wings to around 20 m above the ground. The flight is laboured, with slow, deep wing-beats and the tail pointed downwards while calling repeatedly.
The Karoo Lark has an extended breeding season from August to March. It breeds seasonally (August to December) in the Winter rainfall parts of its range and more opportunistically in the central Karoo, which receives erratic Summer rainfall.
The Karoo lark is monogamous and is a territorial, solitary nester. The nest is a cup composed of grass fibres with a domed roof. It is set into a scrape at the base of a plant and is built by both sexes. Clutch size ranges from 2 to 3 eggs but the incubation, nestling and fledging period is unrecorded.
Species text adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.
The use of photographs by Gerald Wingate, J. Terblanche, Karis Daniel, Maans Booysen, Marna Buys and Zenobia van Dyk is acknowledged.
Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).
Other common names:Mirafra albescens; Certhilauda albescens (Alternative Scientific Names); Karoolewerik (Afrikaans); Alouette du Karroo (French); Karrulerche (German); Cotovia do Karoo (Portuguese)
A list of bird species in this format is available here.
Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2023. Karoo Lark (Calendulauda albescens) Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at http://thebdi.org/2023/02/23/karoo-lark-calendulauda-albescens/
