White-throated canary (Witkeelkanarie)

Scientific name: Crithagra albogularis

The white-throated canary is a small bird about 15 cm long with generally dull-coloured plumage. The diagnostic characteristics are the thick horn-coloured bill, the white throat and the bright yellow rump.  Its legs are brown. They are usually found in pairs or small family groups, although bigger flocks are common at good water sources, which the birds visit frequently.  The male and female have similar external appearances, and juveniles resemble adults.
 It generally prefers semi-arid and arid shrubland, sparse woodland along drainage lines, rocky hillside with scattered tall shrubs, coastal strandveld and gardens in Karoo villages.
It mainly eats seeds supplemented with fruit and insects, foraging both on the ground and in the foliage of bushes and trees.

Karoo prinia, Spotted prinia (Karoolangstertjie)

Scientific name: Prinia maculosa

The Karoo prinia has short rounded wings, a longish tail, strong legs and a short straight black bill. The head has a whitish eyebrow and the upperparts are otherwise brown. The throat and lower face are whitish with dark streaking and the rest of the underparts are yellowish white or yellow with distinct black streaking. The long tail has a dark spot near the end and is typically cocked up at an angle. The feet and legs are pinkish-brown, and the eye is dark brown. The sexes are identical, but juveniles are much yellower below than the adults and less heavily streaked.
Endemic to southern Africa, occurring from the extreme south of Namibia to the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape, extending into the Free State and Lesotho. It is common to locally very common, preferring shrubland such as fynbos, Karoo scrub and renosterveld but also occupying gardens, thickets of alien Acacia trees and strandveld.
It eats a variety of small invertebrates, gleaning them from the leaves and stems of bushes.

Yellow bishop, Cape Bishop, Cape Widow, Yellow-rumped widow (Kaapse flap)

Scientific name: Euplectes capensis

Female and non-breeding

The breeding male is black apart from his bright yellow lower back, rump, and shoulder patches, and brown edging to the wing feathers. He has a short crest, thick conical black bill, and a relatively short tail. In non-breeding plumage, the black plumage is replaced by heavily streaked buffy-brown, and the bill is pale. The yellow shoulders and rump remain, and are a distinction from the female which lacks the contrasting colour patches. The juveniles and females are notoriously difficult to identify in the field, appearing identical to the juveniles and females of several other bishops and widowbirds as well as some seadeaters.

Here it is fairly common in north-central Mozambique, Zimbabwe and in South Africa along the Escarpment, through Lesotho and the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape. It occupies a wide array of habitats, including fynbos, cultivated land, dense vegetation along streams, forest edges and montane grassland.
It eats seeds supplemented with insects, doing most of its foraging on the ground and in patches of grass.

Laughing Dove (Rooiborsduif)

Scientific name: Streptopelia senegalensis

In southern Africa it is extremely common and widespread, occupying woodland, farmland, suburban parks, Acacia plantations and gardens.
The laughing dove is a long-tailed, slim pigeon, typically 25 cm (9.8 in) in length. It is pinkish brown on the underside with a lilac tinged head and neck. The head and underparts are pinkish, shading to buff on the lower abdomen. A chequered rufous and grey patch is found on the sides of the neck and are made up of split feathers. The upper parts are brownish with a bluish-grey band along the wing. The African populations senegalensis and phoenicophila have a bluish grey rump and upper tail coverts. The tail is graduated and the outer feathers are tipped in white.
Eats mainly seeds, as well as small fruit, bulbs and insects, doing most of its foraging on the ground.

Cape Bulbul (Kaapse tiptol)

Scientific name: Pycnonotus capensis

The Cape bulbul is 19–21 cm long, mainly dull, blackish brown with a diagnostic white eye-ring, and yellow undertail coverts. The head has a small crest. The short, straight bill, legs and feet are black and the iris is dark brown. The sexes are similar in plumage.
Endemic to South Africa, where it is very common Across much of the Western Cape, extending along the coast to the Northern and Eastern Cape. It generally prefers thickly vegetated fynbos and succulent karoo, as well as coastal scrub, Acacia karoo (Sweet thorn) woodland, suburban parks and gardens.
It mainly eats fruit, supplemented with arthropods, seeds and nectar. It usually forages in pairs or small groups, plucking fruit from the foliage of trees and bushes, while occasionally hawking invertebrate prey.

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.

425 White-backed Mousebird (Witkruismuisvoël)

Scientific name: Colius colius

The white-backed mousebird (Colius colius) is a large species of mousebird. It is distributed in western and central regions of southern Africa from Namibia and southern Botswana eastwards to Central Transvaal and the eastern Cape.

This mousebird prefers scrubby dry habitats, such as thornveld, fynbos scrub and semi-desert.

This bird is about 34 cm (13 inches) long, with the tail comprising approximately half the length, and weighs 38–64 g (1.3–2.3 oz). The upper parts, head, prominent crest and breast are grey apart from a white back stripe flanked by two broad black stripes and a dark red, or maroon, transverse band at the base of the tail. The white is not visible unless the wings are at least partly open, such as when the birds are alighting, or sometimes in hot weather. The belly is buff in colour. The bill is bluish white with a black tip, and the legs and feet are red.

The speckled mousebird can be distinguished from this species by its differently coloured beak, legs and upperparts.

The white-backed mousebird is a frugivore which subsides on fruits, berries, leaves, seeds and nectar. It also will feed on the buds of some plants, sometimes to the extent of stripping the branches of ornamentals such as fiddlewoods. Its feeding habits make it very unpopular with fruit farmers and domestic gardeners, which might be why it is very shy as a rule. When it spots a human it either sits quiet in a tree or takes off immediately. Sometimes it will settle quietly on lawns when the grass is flowering and feed on the grass stigmata and stamens. In the wild its fruit-eating habits make it an important factor in disseminating seeds of indigenous berry-bearing plants such as Halleria lucida. However, it also spreads the seeds of invasive aliens such as Cotoneaster.

In handling mousebirds the tail should be avoided, as the long retrices come out so easily as to suggest that it is a sacrificial defence mechanism.

This is a markedly social bird, with small groups of presumably related birds feeding together and engaging in mutual preening. It roosts in groups at night. Its perching habits are amusingly parrot-like; it often almost hangs from its legs rather than squatting on them like most birds, and commonly with each leg gripping a different upright branch.

These sedentary birds may breed at any time of the year when conditions are favourable. The nest is a large cup well hidden in a thicket. Nestlings are fed by both parents and also by helpers, usually young birds from previous clutches.

The white-backed mousebird has a whistled zwee-wewit call. It also has a buzzing or crackling call that might be for alarm or keeping in contact with the group.

601 Cape Robin-Chat (Gewone Janfrederik)

Scientific name: Cossypha caffra

The Cape robin-chat (Cossypha caffra) is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa.[2] The locally familiar species has adapted itself to various man-altered habitats. The Cape robin-chat is 16–17 cm long. The adult’s upper-parts are grey, and the face sides in front of and behind the eye are blackish, and is separated from the crown by a white supercilium. The chin, throat, central breast, rump, under-tail coverts and outer tail feathers are orange. The breast is deeper orange in colour during the non-breeding season.[2] The central tail feathers are greyish-brown and the belly is pale grey.

The black bill is short and straight, with a slightly down-curved upper mandible. The legs and feet are pinkish grey, and the eye is brown. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is dark brown above and buff below, heavily marked with buff on the upperparts and grey-brown on the breast.
It forages close to or on ground level. It prefers the cover of dense vegetation, but is not very shy. Invertebrates, small frogs and lizards are obtained in scrub or on leaf litter. In addition fruit and seeds are plucked from plants or eaten on the ground.[6] Occasionally an insect may be hawked in the air, or invertebrates may be gleaned from leaves, branches or rocks.

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.

796 Cape White-eye (Kaapse Glasogie)

Scientific name: Zosterops virens

The Cape white-eye (Zosterops virens) is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. It is native to southern Africa.

There are two subspecies. The western nominate group is now treated as separate species; the Orange River white-eye (Z. pallidus) and the Cape white-eye (Z. virens). The latter can be further divided into two subgroups, the south-western capensis subgroup and the eastern virens subgroup (the so-called green white-eye). All subspecies interbreed where they come into contact (including members of the nominate group with members of the capensis group of both subgroups in Free State).

This species is about 12 cm long with rounded wings, strong legs, and a conspicuous ring of white feathers round the eyes. The upperparts are green, and the throat and vent are bright yellow. The members of the nominate group have a pale yellow central belly with peach coloured flanks. The members of the capensis subgroup have a grey breast and belly, while the virens subgroup have a greenish-yellow breast and belly.

They are very vocal, and constantly keep in touch with soft trilled pee, pree or pirreee callnotes. The song consists of repeated long jerky phrases of sweet reedy notes, varying in pitch, volume and temp, usually starting off with teee teee or pirrup pirrup notes, then becoming a fast rambled jumble of notes, which may incorporate mimicked phrases of other birdcalls.

This is a sociable species forming large flocks outside the breeding season. It builds a cup nest in a tree and lays 2-3 unspotted pale blue eggs. The eggs hatch in 11–12 days, and fledging occurs in another 12–13 days. The peak breeding season is September to December.

The Cape white-eye feeds mainly on insects, but also soft fleshy flowers, nectar, fruit and small grains. It readily comes to bird feeders

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

732 Common Fiscal, Southern Fiscal, Fiscal Shrike (Fiskaallaksman)

Scientific name: Lanius collaris

The southern fiscal or fiscal shrike (Lanius collaris) is a member of the shrike family found through most of Sub-Saharan Africa. It was previously lumped together with the northern fiscal (Lanius humeralis). Together they were known as the common fiscal.
This is a fairly distinctive 21–23-cm long passerine with white underparts and black upperparts extending from the top of the head down to the tail. The bird has a characteristic white "V" on the back and a relatively long black tail with white outer feathers and white tips on the other feathers. The bill, eyes and legs are black. Adult male and female common fiscals are quite similar except for the rufous lower flank of the female.
The southern fiscal is usually solitary and hunts insects and small rodents from an exposed perch or the tops of shrubs. Territorial size is directly related to the density of hunting perches. Installing more artificial perches causes the fiscal to reduce its territory size and allow more birds in the affected range.