Still in the North-East of South Africa.

Southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas).

Bateleur Eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus), a young eagle still with brown feathers.

Southern Blue Waxbill (Uraeginthus angolensis).

As above.

Wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola).  Birds wintering in S Africa originate from Eastern Europe.

The purple-crested turaco (Tauraco porphyreolophus), very beautiful with crimson flight feathers...

Also very difficult to photograph, they are masters at hiding in the trees.

I  brightened this photo quite a lot to try and bring the colours out.  Look closely and you can see a tinge of red flight feather in the wing behind the branch.

Dark-capped bulbul or Common bulbul (Pycnonotus tricolor).

Saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis).

Black-collared barbet (Lybius torquatus).

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Wild Bird Wednesday

and

I'd Rather B Birdin

Moving to the North-Eastern part of South Africa and a few different birds.

Bateleur eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus) adult....

Bateleur youngster.

The immature bateleur eagle's feathers are a uniform dark brown. Around the third year, this plumage starts to turn into adult colours of black, white and grey. It can take an immature bateleur up to 8 years to shed all their brown plumage and turn in to full adults

As above.

Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus). The largest eagle in Africa, it weighs in at almost  6.5 Kg (14 lbs) and has a wingspan of about 6 feet 4 inches. It is 32 inches long.

As above.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

Morning wing-spread behaviour is a means of absorbing solar energy and passively raising their temperature to proper daytime levels...

As above...

As above.

Grey lourie (Corythaixoides concolor), also known as go-away bird, It is a very vocal bird with a nasal call “g'wa-ay, g'wa-ay” call, thus its name.

Giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima). It is the largest kingfisher in Africa.

Woolly-necked stork or whitenecked stork (Ciconia episcopus).

Helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris).

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Wild Bird Wednesday

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I'd Rather B Birdin

A few more birds seen in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Once again I apologise for the quality of some of the photos.  The lens worked well at times and not at others.  Also, many birds were quite far away.

Grey heron (Ardea cinerea).

Kelp gull (Larus dominicanus).

Black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus).

Common tern (Sterna hirundo).

Streaky-headed seedeater or Streaky-headed canary (Crithagra gularis).

As above.

Little egret (Egretta garzetta).

Long-tailed widowbird (Euplectes progne).

Wing-snapping cisticola (Cisticola ayresii).

Southern boubou (Laniarius ferrugineus).

As above.

Joining up with

Wild Bird Wednesday

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I'd Rather B Birdin

More photos taken in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, of the bird life there.

Once again I apologise for some of the slightly blurry shots. Some birds were very far and the lens was also failing to focus all of the time.  Close-ups were so much easier!

Ostrich female (Struthio camelus) flightless and the largest bird in the world....

The male was some distance away ignoring her, though she was showing off and flapping her wings around...

I wondered if they had actually mated just before we arrived.

The fastest bird, or animal in the world on two legs.

In another spot we saw a male bird sitting on eggs. All of the herd’s hens place their eggs in the dominant hen’s 3m-wide nest, though her own are given the prominent centre place; each female can determine her own eggs amongst others. The dominant female will push other eggs out if there are too many to incubate. You can see one out here, and there were another couple further afield out of the photo.

African Stonechat (Saxicola torquatus)...

As above...

As above.

Fork-tailed Drongo (Dicrusrus adsimolis)

As above.

A somewhat blurry shot of a Malachite Sunbird male out of breeding plumage (Nectarinia famosa). In the breeding season, they have a metallic malachite green plumage all over other than its rump. They are very beautiful.

Red-capped lark, (Calandrella cinerea) seen in a newly planted pineapple field...

As above...

As above...

As above.

Joining up with

Wild Bird Wednesday

and

I'd Rather B Birdin