Week 28 - A Special Visitor to the Garden

When we first moved into our house in 1994, I would often hear a Greater Honeyguide calling from a stand of exotic eucalyptes trees on the other side of the highway from where we live, a distance of about 1km. The call is very distinct and can be described as victorrr, victorrr or whitpurr called repeatedly for long periods. (Follow this link to hear the call for yourself http://www.xeno-canto.org/XCspeciesprofiles.php?species_nr2=6090.00&pagenumber=&order=taxonomy&view=3)

Over the past year there has been some Greater Honeyguide activity around the garden. I first heard one calling on 23 August 2010 and spotted him in the White Stinkwood tree behind the house.




Adult Male Greater Honeyguide

 

This caused some excitement initially but when we did not hear him again assumed he was just passing through. Then a week later I found another or possibly the same bird at the bird bath having a drink.





Adult Male - Greater Honeyguide

 

These birds are parasitic (they lay their eggs in another birds nest) and target Hoopoes and Wood-hoopoes as their host species. The males are also known to use the same calling posts year after year in the breeding season which stretches from September to January in our area. He will call incessantly to let females know where he is and then once she is ready to lay comes to him for fertilisation. This must have happened close to where we are because this year I spotted a juvenile bird at the small dam in our garden.





Juvenile Greater Honeyguide


There seems to be more bees around as well, especially drinking at the dam, which possibly indicates a hive nearby. This species is known to lead people and badgers to a hive where once the hive has been robbed they descend to feed on the grubs and bee larvae. The Zulu people believe that a hunter should always leave a bit of the hive behind for the honeyguide, if he has lead them there, or else the next time the honeyguide will lead the hunter to a poisonous snake or something equally dangerous!

It will be great to see these birds more often around the garden as it adds a bit more variety to the more common ones. Hopefully they have set up a territory encompassing our garden!!

Week 25 - Glossy Starlings in the Garden

Week 25 showed an influx of Cape Glossy Starlings into the garden. We normally have a pair that visit regularly but this week I counted 7 of them around the feeder at once. I am always fascinated by their colours and the way the light catches them. I hope that I have been able to capture some of that beauty in the following photos!



 



Cape Glossy Starlings (3)


The Black-throated Canaries have also started making their daily visits to the small dam my son and I built for the birds. They only seem to visit the dam in winter, probably because of the availability of water during the wet summer months. I find them to be quite shy in our garden but you cant blame them with the sparrow and finch bullies that we have in large gangs dominating the seed feeders.



Black-throated Canary


Some common garden visitors..



Crested Barbet





Grey-headed Sparrow





Grey-headed Sparrow





House Sparrow






Red-headed Finch male

 
It was also during this week that we had a lunar eclipse which was good for photography practice...







Lunar Eclipse - June 2011


We also had an uncommon visitor in the form of an immature Greater Honeyguide but I was not fast enough for a photo. With all the bees drinking water at the dam their must be a hive close by which in turn would attract the Honeyguide!! Last June I photographed an adult male calling from the White Stinkwood right over the dam..perhaps they are to become garden residents!!