Lark-like bunting (Vaalstreepkoppie)

Scientific name: Emberiza impetuani 

A rather plain, nondescript bunting. Head sandy brown with darker brown streaking on crown and a distinctive broad buffy supercilium ("eyebrow").
It generally prefers arid, open shrubland, desert grassland, dry watercourses, sparse grassland or shrubland on rocky ridges, eroded gullies, road verges and occasionally gardens of Karoo villages.
It mainly eats grass seeds, foraging on bare ground with scattered shrubs and stones.

706 Fairy Flycather (Feëvlieëvanger)

Scientific name: Stenostira scita

The fairy flycatcher or fairy warbler (Stenostira scita) is a small passerine bird. Formerly placed in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae, it is now separated with some other "odd flycatchers" as the new family Stenostiridae (Beresford et al. 2005, Fuchs et al. 2006). It is the only member of the genus Stenostira.

It is an endemic resident breeder in southern Africa in Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia, and a vagrant to Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Stenostira scita is a common seasonal migrant, breeding in karoo scrub and fynbos in the southern highlands, and migrating north to spend the southern winter in thorn scrub at lower altitudes.
The fairy flycatcher is 11–12 cm in length. The adult is pale grey above with a black mask through the eye and a white supercilium. The wings are black with a long white stripe, and the long black tail has white sides. The throat is white, the breast is pale grey, and the belly is white with a pinkish-grey wash to its centre. The sexes are alike, but the juvenile is browner than the adult. The eye is brown and the bill and legs are black.
The fairy flycatcher is monogamous unless its mate dies, when it will seek a new partner. It builds an open cup nest from thin stems and other plant material and lined with plant down. It is placed in the branches of a tree or shrub but well concealed. The female lays two or three green eggs.[2]

This bird is usually seen alone, in pairs, or small flocks. It feeds on small insects and other invertebrates, foraging in the foliage like a warbler.

551 Grey Tit (Pietjoujougrysmees)

Scientific name: Parus afer

The grey tit (Parus afer) is a species of bird in the Paridae family. It is found in Lesotho and South Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation. I has a wide distribution and covers most of the Karoo. In the Karoo it is associated with karroid scrub and usually with rocky areas. On the West Coast of South Africa they occur in strandveld and Renosterveld without rocks.

621 Chestnut-vented Tit-babler (Bosveldetjeriktik)

Scientific name: Sylvia subcaerulea

The chestnut-vented warbler, chestnut-vented tit-babbler or rufous-vented warbler, (Sylvia subcaerulea), is an Old World warbler.

The chestnut-vented warbler breeds in southern Africa in Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland. This is a common species found in a range of habitats fynbos, scrub, thickets and dry riverbeds.
The chestnut-vented warbler is 14–15 cm long and weighs around 16 g. Its upperparts are grey-brown, and the tail is black with a broad white band at its tip. This warbler has a white eye ring. The throat is grey with heavy dark streaking, the breast and belly are grey, and the vent area is bright chestnut. The legs are black and the eyes are grey. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has an unstreaked throat. The call is a loud fluted cheerup-chee-chee.

Layard's warbler, Sylvia layardi, is the only similar species, but is paler, has more white in the tail, and lacks the chestnut vent.
The chestnut-vented warbler builds a cup nest flow in vegetation. This species is monogamous, pairing for life. It is usually seen alone or in pairs, moving through vegetation as it forages for insects and other small invertebrates.

426 Red-faced Mousebird (Rooiwangmuisvoël)

Scientific name: Urocolius indicus

The red-faced mousebird (Urocolius indicus) is common in southern Africa from Zaire, Zambia and Tanzania south to the Cape. Its habitat is savanna with thickets, fynbos scrub, other open woodland, gardens and orchards.

This bird is about 34 cm (13 inches) long, with the tail comprising approximately half the length. The crested head and breast are pale cinnamon with a red bill and eye mask. The rest of the upperparts and tail are blue-grey apart from a paler grey rump. The belly is whitish. The sexes are similar, but juveniles lack the crest and have a green mask.

The red-faced mousebird is a frugivore which subsists on fruits, berries, leaves, seeds and nectar. Its flight is typically fast, strong and direct from one feeding area to another.

This is a social bird outside the breeding season, feeding together in small groups, normally of about half a dozen birds, but sometimes up to 15 or more. It engages in mutual preening and roosts in groups at night. It is more wary than other mousebirds. The red-faced mousebird has a whistled tsee-tee-tee call.

506 Spiked-heeled Lark (Vlaktelewerik)

Scientific name: Chersomanes albofasciata

The spike-heeled lark (Chersomanes albofasciata) is a species of lark in the Alaudidae family. It is found in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland.
It mainly eats invertebrates and seeds, doing most of its foraging in the ground, plucking food from the soil surface or from the bases of grasses and forbs. It often looks for food around rodent burrows, and it may even take prey aerially or from the leaves of shrubs.

495 Eastern Clapper Lark (Hoëveldklappertjie)

Scientific name: Mirafra fasciolata

The eastern clapper lark (Mirafra fasciolata) is a small passerine bird which breeds in southern Africa. It derives its name from the wing clapping which forms part of its display flight. This species and the Cape clapper lark were formerly considered conspecifc. Fry, Keith and Urban, in The Birds of Africa, regard this species and the Cape clapper lark as forming a superspecies with M. rufocinnamomea, the flappet lark, which is found further north. The eastern clapper lark is found in much of the drier parts of southern Africa in Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.
The eastern clapper lark is a species of open grassland and savannah.
This lark is a 15-cm-long bird, with a brown crown, rich rufous underparts, and a strong bill. It has brown upperparts (greyer in the north of its range). The display commences with an ascending flight with wing flapping. It then parachutes down with trailing legs. Its call is an ascending pooooeeeee. The eastern clapper lark is a skulking species, difficult to find when not displaying. It is not gregarious, and individuals tend to be seen in dry habitats feeding on the ground on seeds and insects.

614 Karoo Scrub-Robin (Slangverklikker)

Scientific name: Cercotrichas coryphaeus

The Karoo scrub robin or Karoo robin (Cercotrichas coryphaeus) is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa.
Its natural habitats are dry shrubland and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation.It is 17 cm long and weighs 19 g. The upperparts are drab greyish brown; the face with a narrow, white supercilium above thin black eye-stripe. Partial whitish eye-ring below eye. Closed tail darker than rump and mantle. Upper wing coverts and flight feathers brown, underwing dull buffy brown. Bill black, eyes brown and legs as well as feet black.
Song calls vary between individuals, e.g. chip, swee-chipswirraree, seeep-seeep-treeeeyer, repeated 5 – 10 times.
Favours bare ground beneath ca. 1 m high vegetation and can be found in the low shrublands of the Karoo and Namaqualand in South Africa, in drainage line woodland. Also occasionally seen among tall vegetation at the base of farm dam walls.
Nearly all food taken on ground, while its diet consists mainly of insects, dominated by worker ants that it gleans from the ground surface, and also including termites, beetles, caterpillars, moths and small grasshoppers.

507 Red-capped Lark (Rooikop Lewerik)

Scientific name: Calandrella cinerea

The red-capped lark, Calandrella cinerea, is a small passerine bird. This lark breeds in the highlands of eastern Africa southwards from Ethiopia and northern Somalia. In the south, its range stretches across the continent to Angola and south to the Cape in South Africa.The red-capped lark is a 14- to 15-cm-long bird, with a typically upright stance. The colour of the streaked grey to brown upperparts is variable, with subspecies differing in hue and brightness, but this species is easily identified by its rufous cap, white underparts, and red shoulders. The short head crest is normally not noticeable except when it is raised during courtship displays.

The male has redder plumage and a longer crest than the female. Juveniles lack the red cap and shoulders of the adults, have dark spotting on the breast, and white spots on the dark brown upperparts.

The call of the red-capped lark is a tshwerp like a sparrow, and the song, given in the display flight, is a jumble of melodious phrases treee, treee, tip-tip, tippy, tippy tippy. It also imitates other birds.
The red-capped lark is a species which feeds on seeds and insects in very short grass or on patches of bare ground. It is found in flocks which sometimes number hundreds of birds when not breeding.

It forages on bare ground, moving with short runs as it searches for seeds and some insects.

846 Common Waxbill (Rooibeksysie)

Scientific name: Estrilda astrild

The common waxbill (Estrilda astrild), also known as the St Helena Waxbill is a small passerine bird belonging to the estrildid finch family. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa but has been introduced to many other regions of the world and now has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km2. It is popular and easy to keep in captivity.
It is a small bird, 11 to 13 centimetres in length with a wingspan of 12 to 14 centimetres and a weight of 7 to 10 grams. It has a slender body with short rounded wings and a long graduated tail. The bright red bill of the adult is the colour of sealing wax giving the bird its name.[2] The plumage is mostly grey-brown, finely barred with dark brown. There is a red stripe through the eye and the cheeks and throat are whitish. There is often a pinkish flush to the underparts and a reddish stripe along the centre of the belly depending on the subspecies. The rump is brown and the tail and vent are dark. Females are similar to the males but are paler with less red on the belly. Juveniles are duller with little or no red on the belly, fainter dark barring and a black bill.
The common waxbill has a variety of twittering and buzzing calls and a distinctive high-pitched flight-call. The simple song is harsh and nasal and descends on the last note.
The diet consists mainly of grass seeds but insects are also eaten on occasions, especially during the breeding season when more protein is needed. The waxbills typically forage in flocks which may contain hundreds or even thousands of birds. They usually feed by clinging to the stems with their long, spindly claws and picking from the flower heads but they will also search for fallen seeds on the ground. They need to drink regularly as the seeds contain little water.

162 Pale Chanting Goshawk (Bleeksingvalk)

Scientific name: Melierax canorus

S Pale Chanting Goshawk is a medium-sized raptor 56–65 cm long. Adult has pale grey upperparts. On wings, secondary coverts have fine white bars. Rump is white. Tail is dark grey, with outer feathers barred with white. Underparts are white, finely barred with wavy grey bars. Chest is pale grey. Underwings are black on outer primaries, and white on inner primaries and secondaries. Tail is dark grey barred with white. On the head, crown is grey, becoming paler on nape and upper back. Hooked bill is black, with yellow-orange cere and gape. Eyes are red or reddish-brown. Bare legs and feet are red.
Both sexes are similar in plumage, but female is larger than male.

In flight, the adult has black primary flight feathers, very pale grey (white from a distance) secondaries, and grey forewings. The wingspan is about 105 cm.

Immatures have brown upperparts, with a white rump and black bars on the tail. From below, the flight feathers and tail are white with black barring, the throat is dark-streaked white, and the rest of the underparts are rufous.

The pale chanting goshawk eats a variety of vertebrate prey, mainly lizards, but also small mammals and birds, and large insects. It often walks on the ground.

This is generally a rather quiet bird, but during the breeding season the male makes a series of tuneful whistling calls kleeuu, kleeuu-ku-ku-ku from a tree-top perch.

Normally a female mates with a single male, but in "broken veld" vegetation, a female and two males may form a polyandrous trio.[3]

The relatively small stick nest is built in an acacia at a height of 3 to 10 m. The female lays and incubates one or two pale bluish or greenish white, unmarked eggs. Only one chick is normally reared from a nest of two. The breeding cycle begins in midwinter and takes over 115 days.[3] The young after leaving the nest may be found near it for some months and in the following year may even display in the same area. Some pairs and especially trios raise a second brood, starting about 24 days after the first brood fledges.[

878 Yellow Canary (Geelkanarie)

Scientific name: Crithagra flaviventris

The yellow canary (Crithagra flaviventris) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is a resident breeder in much of the western and central regions of southern Africa and has been introduced to Ascension and St Helena islands.
The yellow canary was formerly placed in the genus Serinus but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that the genus was polyphyletic.[2] The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow canary were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra.[3][4]

For an overview of finch phylogeny (including canaries) see the entry on finches.
The yellow canary is typically 13 cm in length. The adult male colour ranges from almost uniform yellow in the northwest of its range to streaked, olive backed birds in the southeast. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow. The female has grey-brown upperparts, black wings with yellow flight feathers, and a pale supercilium. The underparts are white with brown streaking. The juvenile resembles the female, but has heavier streaking.

This species is easily distinguished from the yellow-fronted canary by its lack of black facial markings, and its bill is less heavy than that of other similar African Crithagra species.
Its habitat is karoo and coastal or mountain valley scrub. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub.

The yellow canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is chissick or cheree, and the song is a warbled zee-zeree-chereeo.

813 Cape Weaver (Kaapse Wewer)

Scientific name: Ploceus capensis

The Cape weaver is a stocky 17 cm long bird with streaked olive-brown upperparts and a long pointed conical bill. The breeding male has a yellow head and underparts, an orange face, and a white iris. The adult female has an olive-yellow head and breast, shading to pale yellow on the lower belly. Her eyes are brown. Young birds are similar to the female.
Endemic to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, occurring across much of the area excluding the Kalahari Desert, generally preferring open grassland, lowland fynbos, coastal thicket and farmland, provided they have permanent water and trees. This common species occurs in grassland, agricultural and fynbos habitats, often near rivers. It breeds in noisy colonies in trees and reedbeds. This weaver builds a large coarsely woven nest made of grass and leaf strips with a downward facing entrance which is suspended from a branch or reed. The hadada ibis will sometimes nest in the weaver colonies. The Cape weaver feeds on a wide variety of seeds, grain and insects. The calls of this bird include a harsh azwit, azwit.
Omnivorous, as its diet it is pretty much equally split between arthropods and plant matter, especially seeds, fruit and nectar. It forages on the ground and in tree foliage, gleaning food from crevices in bark and hawking insects aerially.

152 Jackal Buzzard (Rooiborsjakkalsvoël)

Scientific name: Buteo rufofuscus

The jackal buzzard (Buteo rufofuscus) is a 45–55 cm long African bird of prey. The taxonomy on this species is confusing, with some taxonomists considering this species, the Archer's buzzard, and the augur buzzard to be the same superspecies. Many taxonomists consider them all to be distinct, having different calls, different home ranges and variations in plumage. This is a species of mountains, and adjacent savanna and grassland. It is resident and non-migratory throughout its range. The adult South African jackal buzzard is strikingly plumaged. It is almost black above with a rufous tail. The primary flight feathers are blackish and the secondaries off-white, both barred with black. Below the chin and around the throat is mainly chestnut, and the rest of the underparts and the underwing coverts are rich rufous. The flight feathers from below are white, tipped with black to form a dark trailing edge to the wing. The juvenile jackal buzzard is mainly brown above and rufous brown below and on the tail. The jackal buzzard has a weeah ka-ka-ka call like that of black-backed jackal, hence its name. It is also reminiscent of the call of the American red-tailed hawk.

Behaviour

Pairs have noisy aerial displays, including outside the breeding season. The large (up to 1 m wide) stick nest is built in a tree or on a crag, and is often reused and enlarged in subsequent seasons. Two creamy or bluish white eggs are laid and incubated by the female only, although food is brought to her on the nest by the male.

The eggs hatch in about 40 days, and after a further 56–60 days they can attempt flight. At 70 days they become independent of the nest, but young birds may then be seen with the adult pair for some time.

The diet of the jackal buzzard is mainly small ground mammals, but snakes, lizards, small ground birds, insects, and road-kill are also taken. Typically, the raptor drops on its prey from a perch or hover

713 Cape Wagtail (Gewone Kwikkie)

Scientific name: Motacilla capensis

The Cape wagtail (Motacilla capensis) is a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which includes the wagtails, pipits and longclaws.

This species breeds in much of Africa from eastern Zaire and Angola across to Kenya and south to the Cape in South Africa.This is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water. It prefers bare areas or short grass for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey. In urban areas it has adapted to foraging in gardens or paved areas such as car parks. Pairs make bulky nests in crevices in natural and man-made structures, and lay up to seven eggs.

The Cape wagtail is a slender bird, 19–20 cm in length, with the characteristic longish, constantly wagging tail of its genus. The adult is plain grey-brown above, apart from pale wing edges and a short white supercilium. It has off-white underparts, with a dark grey band across the breast. Young birds are duller and have yellowish underparts. Cape wagtail has a tsee chee chee call and a trilled whistled song.

This wagtail forages energetically for insect on the ground, alone or in pairs, moving with a characteristic bobbing motion that causes the tail to swing up and down. Feeding is often near water, including garden ponds, and this bird will eat tadpoles or tiny fish if the opportunity arises.

1 Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Scientific name: Struthio camelus

The ostrich or common ostrich (Struthio camelus) is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member(s) of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. Starting in 2014, the Somali ostrich is now considered a full species separate from the common ostrich.[1]

The ostrich shares the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, rheas and cassowaries. However, phylogenetic studies have shown that it is the basal extant member of Palaeognathae and is thus equally closely related to flighted tinamous.[3][4] It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs, and can run at up to about 70 km/h (19 m/s; 43 mph),[5] the fastest land speed of any bird.[6] The ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest eggs of any living bird (extinct elephant birds of Madagascar and the giant moa of New Zealand laid larger eggs).

The ostrich's diet consists mainly of plant matter, though it also eats invertebrates. It lives in nomadic groups of 5 to 50 birds. When threatened, the ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, or run away. If cornered, it can attack with a kick of its powerful legs. Mating patterns differ by geographical region, but territorial males fight for a harem of two to seven females.

356 Namaqua dove (Namaqua duif)

Scientific name: Oena capensis

The Namaqua dove is a tiny sparrow-sized pigeon, typically 22 cm in length with a 28–33 cm wingspan, and weighing 40g. It has a very long black tapered tail, and the size and shape have led to comparison with the budgerigar. The plumage is mostly grey apart from a white belly, and chestnut primary feathers which are visible in flight.

The adult male has a black face, throat and breast, and a yellow and red beak. The adult female lacks the black and has a red-based grey bill. Young birds are dark blotched on the wings and shoulders, and otherwise resemble the females.

The song is a quiet, short, double hoo, higher on the longer second note kuh-whooo, mournful and frequently repeated.