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Everyone loves owls: African edition

10,000 Birds

There are few families of birds where despite a cosmopolitan distribution I’m always so pleased to see any species of the family. This was only the second time I had ever seen this species in all my time on the continent. The species is a common one, found from the Gambia to Somalia and from the Sudan to South Africa.

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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”. This attractive (for a lark anyway) species is restricted to the dry savannah Somali-Maasai biome of north-east Africa (northern Tanzania, Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia).

Africa 207
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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.

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The Future of Birding Field Guides is Digital

10,000 Birds

No need to page through dozens of plates of similar looking species anymore. With a library of every single bird on Earth at their disposal there will be an app that allows you to “create your own guide&# based on your location. Off to the Amazon? Download the relevant images and info into a location specific guide.

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The long and winding road

10,000 Birds

In the High Arctic we find several migrating species that break that mould. This tiny passerine winters in Africa, places like Tanzania, Nigeria, Somalia. They also migrate to and from the High Arctic, crossing the Atlantic to Europe, but they keep going, down across the Mediterranean into Africa.

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Weavers

10,000 Birds

The IOC world birdlist recognizes 90 species that bear the name “weaver” or “malimbe” Not all of these are true weavers as we will discuss below. There are currently 64 recognized species in this genus, a remarkable number indeed, and this includes the 5 Asian and 2 Malagasy species.

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Introducing the African Birding Beat

10,000 Birds

Approximately 2,300 bird species inhabit Africa, however as impressive as that sounds, much smaller South America boasts nearly 1,000 species more. Madagascar’s mammals are equally remarkable; over 100 species of endearing lemurs and bizarre carnivores amongst them!