"birding" fun

[N96HBK]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

I think you are right!

The one I found is this.........

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_magpie

It has a prominent blue streak on the side (which would be the "decider" for this bird), but I could not see this colour in your photo.

I couldn't see it in real life, too. I saw a few tree sparrows, but I couldn't get a picture of them. It is nearly impossible to get close to a sparrow here....

[Kevin WS]

Our sparrows here are a bit jumpy too. But there are lots.......

[N96HBK]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

Our sparrows here are a bit jumpy too. But there are lots.......

Thousands here. Most fly in groups, and there are about 10 in each group.

[Don Boose]

Those are definitely the magpies that I remember. They probably are actually Eurasian magpies. They look the same as the ones we saw in Japan (25+ year old memory working here).

My family and I were members of an international hiking group that called itself the Mountain Magpies (San Kkachi - 산 까치).

I also recall a Korean soktam (saying) that meant the same as American English "Speak of the devil," when someone you have been talking about suddenly shows up:
"까치"이라고 말과 까치가 울어. [Speak of the magpie, and the magpie chirps.]

Don

[Kevin WS]

Sorting out the pics still from when we were in the bush last month.

Here is one I was pretty pleased with - a Dark Capped Bulbul.

Quite a noisy bird, but always difficult to see as it "skulks" all the time.

Even harder to photograph, so I was pretty pleased to get this. Also shows all the relevant markings - the yellow behind being one of the main distinguishing features of this bird.

[Don Boose]

A really beautiful image, Kevin.

It's a great pleasure to see these birds that are quite exotic to my eye.

Don

[Kevin WS]

Thank you Don.

There is a severe drought at the moment where we go and birds were really scarce. I have a few more pics though still to do. Surprisingly we saw few vultures around - maybe they are all stuffed to bursting?

I really do not know enough about bird behaviour!

[N96HBK]

Are there a lot of birds there in South Africa? I never went there before, so I don't know much...

[Kevin WS]

Dong-Woo - I think there are relatively speaking.

There certainly seem to be far more then in the UK and Western Europe.

In our garden we have daily 5-6 species and in town you could probably do around 15-20 in a day, driving.

In the bush probably 12-15 in a day in one spot, but driving around, 50 species in one day, up to 100 species IDENTIFIED in 2 days. Plus maybe 10-20 unidentified.

But by driving, I mean also visiting the various different habitats - dams, rivers, bushvelt (scrubby bush), savanna grassland, riverine forest etc. etc.

Looking in the different habitats is the key to picking up the different species.

[Kevin WS]

Dong-Woo.

Maybe get held of a local bird book - this will give the habitats I am sure - a great aid to finding birds.......