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Avian squatters at the end of Europe

10,000 Birds

The Cuckoo Cuculus canorus has a bad reputation because of its habit of laying its eggs on the nests of other birds, who then raise their young. The White-rumped Swift Apus caffer , a tropical African breeding species, was only discovered breeding in Europe in the 1960s. Curiously, they also breed in Iberia today.

Europe 296
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Terror on the moors

10,000 Birds

But no, my story today is about the birds that come in to breed on the heather moorland which dominates the high ground. It’s quite amazing how birds that we are used to seeing much of the year on coastal mudflats, exploiting the intertidal, change their habits and take to the hills to raise their young.

Puffins 245
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15 expat-friendly countries for a birder to move to

10,000 Birds

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. And it raises a question: if all the birds are having a party over there, am I in the wrong spot? And I remembered that, back when I was a boy, I wanted to live in eastern Africa. Or Polynesia.

Sri Lanka 257
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“Peacocks and Picathartes: Reflections on Africa’s Birdlife”

10,000 Birds

I did that with Peacocks & Picathartes – Reflections on Africa’s birdlife (published by Penguin Random House South Africa ). In case you didn’t know, yes, there is an indigenous peacock living in Africa, the Congo Peafowl. He has authored several other books and many articles, largely on natural history.

Congo 264
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Birding the Ndumo area, South Africa

10,000 Birds

Ndumo Game Reserve lies in the Easternmost part of South Africa, close to the border of Mozambique and Eswatini. I am sure it has some value, but would I really want to spend a few months or even years on “Ticks on Crested Francolins and on the vegetation on a farm in Limpopo Province, South Africa “ ? UysI and G.

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Picathartes – Africa’s strangest birds

10,000 Birds

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. It’s guaranteed to be the trip of a lifetime!

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Wagbachniederung in Late Spring

10,000 Birds

It seemed to me that this species has a much more liberal approach to raising offspring compared to that other waterfowl: the young chicks were sometimes exploring the wetland dozens of meters away from the mother – so far I think I’ve always seen ducklings to follow their parents quite closely.

Sri Lanka 228