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Big Ticks; What Was Your Last New Family?

10,000 Birds

But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding. Sometimes you may even lose them, like the aforementioned woodswallows which are probably no longer a family.

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Introducing the African Birding Beat

10,000 Birds

I have thoroughly explored vast parts of the continent as well as neighboring Madagascar, in the process seeing over 2,000 birds on the continent and all but one Malagasy endemic. Madagascar’s mammals are equally remarkable; over 100 species of endearing lemurs and bizarre carnivores amongst them!

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African Skimmers at the Kazinga Channel

10,000 Birds

I can’t honestly remember what the current Russian Doll arrangement is for the skuas, gulls, terns and skimmers, so they are either their own family or a type of skua, gull or tern. Close examination of this photo may reveal a Collared Pratincole.

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The Bee-eaters of Africa

10,000 Birds

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. They are usually found in small family groups perched atop bushes or short trees, from whence they sally out to catch their prey.

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

10,000 Birds

A lot of destinations were mentioned, with Central and South America leading the way, New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia appearing only at the middle of the list, and African countries (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar) lagging at the end of the list.

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African Pygmy Geese – Diminutive Ducks

10,000 Birds

True geese belong to the tribe or sub-family Anserini within the larger family Anatidae that encompasses ducks, geese and swans. And the Magpie Geese of the same country are believed to be neither ducks nor geese nor swans and are now placed within their own family Anseranatidae.

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I and the Bird: What is a Grebe?

10,000 Birds

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. And truth told, over the years they’ve been something of a square peg for ornithologists too, not fitting precisely into any of the known families of birds. A Family of Little Grebes – YC Lee, Bird Ecology Study Group.