Birds in the rain

As most probably have understood by now, we have become quite the bird nerds and always get excited when seeing new or rare species... and going down to the coast provided us with an excellent opportunity to see birds we usually don't see, since this part of the country is a totally different biome to that we are used to in Makalali.

The weather may have brought out the “rain bird”, Burchell’s coucal, that is said to only call right before and after rains… and during rains, so most often in a high rainfall area such as this, I guess. We do see and hear this species from time to time but they are a bit more timid in Makalali than they were down here.

We were lucky to have a number of nice bird sightings, especially vultures that were feeding on a carcass close to the road

and yellow billed kites, which were everywhere. They are very agile in the air and totally unafraid and gladly fly a few meters above your head. This one had just eaten a worm next to the car (if you can call the Tazz a car...) and was the hovering above us in the fairly strong winds.

The one species we wanted to see though was the relative of Jonny's all time favourite bird (helmeted guineafowl). He was ecstatic when we came across some crested guineafowls. They look rather funny in the rain since their crests become drenched and make them look like they are having a really bad hair day

We also saw purple-crested turacos, which are really beautyful birds with purple, blue and green feathers.

The black-shouldered kite is the one raptor that hovers the most when hunting and we saw them doing this a lot.

The martial eagle is a majestic bird that we don't encounter too often and you rarely find them perched close enough for descent pictures.

The guesthouse we stayed in for a couple of nights was appropriately named Hornbill house. As we drove up to the house we were greeted by a noisy group of trumpeter hornbills and they seemed to be the most common bird in the town of St Lucia... a very sympathetic bird if I may say so.

/A