South Africa

 

Lilac Breast Roller

It has been five months since returning from our South Africa and Swaziland OAT trip.  We saw so many incredible birds, and here is just a sampling.  We saw this colorful creature on August 17th at Kruger National Park.  I couldn't believe it stayed still along enough for me to snap a photo, although the national bird of Zimbabwe, it was not as close as I would have liked it to be.  Most of the information about these birds came from Wikipedia. Here is some information :

Prefers open woodland and savanna, it perches conspicuously at the tops of trees. The sexes are alike in coloration, and juveniles lack the long tail streamers of adults. Rollers get their name from their impressive courtship flight, a fast, shallow dive from considerable elevation with a rolling or fast rocking motion, accompanied by loud raucous calls.

Brown Hooded Kingfisher

The brown-hooded kingfisher is a species of bird in the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It has a brown head and blackish and turquoise wings. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa, living in woodland, scrubland, forest edges, and also suburban areas.It usually forages on the ground, mainly feeding on insects, and also eating scorpions, reptiles, small birds, rodents and fishes.^{[6]I took this picture August 22nd at the Hluhluwe –Imfolozi Park, formerly Hluhluwe–Umfolozi Game Reserve, is the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa.}

Hadeda Ibis

This was taken on August 27th at Tsitsikama, and they are named because of its loud three to four note calls uttered in flight especially in the mornings and evenings when they fly out or return to their roost trees. Hadada have become very common in many African cities and tolerate the closeness of humans.^[13] They are able to judge the direction of gaze of humans and the speed of approach to decide their escape strategies.^[14] Hadada ibises have been involved in several bird-hits at airports in Kenya and South Africa.^[15][16]The Bantu people of Uganda have an origin story where a man and wife starved themselves during a drought while letting their children eat whatever little they had. The man and his wife were then turned into ibises that go by the name of Mpabaana.^[21]

African Penguin

The African penguin, also known as the jackass penguin and black-footed penguin, is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. August 28th is when this photo was taken at Boulder Beach near Simon's Town and Cape Town in South Africa.  The pink gland above their eyes helps them to cope with changing temperatures.African penguins have a very recognizable appearance with a thick band of black that is in the shape of an upside-down horseshoe.When foraging, African penguins carry out dives that on average reach a depth of 25 m and last for 69 s, although a maximum depth of 130 m and duration of 275 s has been recorded.^{[20] These two are helping each other spruce up their nest.  We also visited the SANCCOB Seabird Center where baby chicks are rescued and cared for.}

African Skimmer

 This picture was taken on August 31st in Chobe National Park.  The African skimmer (Rynchops flavirostris) is a near-threatened species of bird. Their bill structure is unique; the lower mandible is much longer than the upper mandible, and is flattened sideways like scissor blades.^[2]African skimmers are partial intra-African migrants, they arrive in southern Africa when the water level of rivers starts falling at the beginning of the dry season, i.e. April–June, returning northwards after breeding when rivers start rising again at the start of the rainy season in November–January.^[3]

African Fish Eagle - Finally the last bird is the national bird of Zimbabwe which is why I chose this one.  I shot this photo on August 22nd at Hluhluwe.  This species may resemble the bald eagle in appearance; though related, each species occurs on different continents, with the bald eagle being resident in North America. Pairs often maintain two or more nests, which they frequently reuse. Because nests are reused and built upon over the years, they can grow quite large, some reaching 2 m (6.0 ft) across and 1.2 m (3.9 ft) deep.Should the African fish eagle catch prey over ten times their own body weight, it is too heavy to allow the eagle to get lift, so it instead drags the fish across the surface of the water until it reaches the shore. If it catches a fish too heavy to allow the eagle to sustain flight, it will drop into the water and paddle to the nearest shore with its wings.