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Big Ticks; What Was Your Last New Family?

10,000 Birds

Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. 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.

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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. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 266
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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. So go to Queen Elizabeth National Park and tick this tricky species (I actually have no idea how seasonal this species is here).

Uganda 235
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“Peacocks and Picathartes: Reflections on Africa’s Birdlife”

10,000 Birds

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. Madagascar, however, is beyond the reach of this book, notwithstanding its also being part of the Afrotropical region.” He has authored several other books and many articles, largely on natural history.

Congo 264
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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.

Geese 213
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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. I would never have believed it, but if the science says so who am I to argue otherwise?

Jordan 234
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Pink in Africa

10,000 Birds

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Its mostly found on the ground in thickets or the edges of dense vegetation and usually in small family parties. Another not very pink species is the Pink-footed Puffback.

Africa 249