Video#5-: Some Birds Of The Nhamacoa

All the birds you’re about to see were filmed around our house (quite often from the sitting room window!) or not far away.

As O’D’s only camera is an MD140 Canon Camcorder and he filmed the birds without using a tripod, some of the film is rather ‘bouncy’.  I hope you won’t find this too irritating.  Birds move around very fast and would have flown away by the time he had set up a tripod.  The breeze that usually blows in the Nhamacoa doesn’t help either, moving branches up and down and blowing leaves around.

Although we’re going to do a separate video on our resident Vangas (Bias Musicus) which are rare according to Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa, O’D thought he’d whet your appetite with a clip he took of the male Vanga removing the wings of a butterfly before popping it into the waiting mouth of the little female Vanga he and his mate had produced.

From time to time in this blog, we’ll be showing you more birds living in our little forest.  There are too many to show all in one go.

  

For those of you who are birding enthusiasts, I attach a list of birds O’D and I have sighted in the Nhamacoa.  There are many more in the forest which we have not yet filmed or been able to identify.

To watch Video Click On The Link Below-:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRA4Q4_st8o

Below is a list of some of the birds frequently sighted around our house: 

Vangas   (Bias musicus)  -  Rare, according to Newman.  Sighted almost daily by us

                        and at the moment busy building a nest in a eucalyptus tree in front of

                        our house..

Wattle-eyed Flycatchers   (Platysteira peltata)

Blue-spotted Wood Doves   (Turtur afer)

Crested guinea fowl   (Guttera pucherani)

Helmeted guinea fowl   (Numida meleagris)

Livingstone’s Turaco   (Tauraco livingstonii)

Narina Trogon  (Apaloderma narina)

Broad-tailed Paradise Whydahs   (Vidua obtuse)

Pin-tailed Whydahs  (Vidua macroura)

Yellow-rumped Widow  (Euplectes capensis)

Grey or Black-tailed Waxbill   (Estrilda perreini)

Crowned Hornbills   (Tockus alboterminatus)

Silvery-cheeked Hornbill   (Bycanistes brevis)  -  sighted twice January to March and

     again on 14 April 2008)                                                                                                                      

Trumpeter Hornbill   (Bycanistes bucinator)  -  sighted 15 April 2008)                                                                                                                                                                                   

African Golden Orioles   (Oriolus auratus)

Black-headed Orioles   (Oriolus larvatus)

Eurasian Golden Orioles   (Oriolus oriolus)

Lizard Buzzards   (Kaupifalco monogrammicus)

Long-crested Eagle   (Lophaetus occipitalis)

Southern Banded Snake Eagle  (Circaetus fasciolatus)

Heuglin’s Robin  (Cossypha heuglini)

African Green pigeons   (Treron calva)

Red-backed Mannikins   (Lonchura cucullata)

Bronze Mannikins   (Lonchura cucullata)

Jameson’s Firefinches  (Logonosticta rhodopareia)

Red-throated Twinspots  (Hypargos niveoguttatus)

Black Widow Finch or Indigobirds  (Vidua funereal)

Tropical Boubous    (Laniarius aethiopicus)

Arrow-marked Babblers   (Turdoides jardineii)

Green Coucals   (Ceuthmochares aereus)

Burchell’s Coucals   (Centropus burchellii)

Brown-Hooded Kingfishers   (Halcyon albiventris)

Malachite Kingfishers   (Alcedo cristata)

Woodland Kingfishers   (Halcyon senegalensis)

Pied Kingfishers   (Ceryle rudis)

Green Woodhoopoes   (Phoeniculus purpureus)

Black-backed Puffbacks   (Dryoscopus cubla)

Gorgeous Bush Shrikes    (Telophorus quadricolor)

Orange-breasted Bush Shrikes    (Telophorus sulfureopectus)

White-crested Helmet Shrikes    (Prionops plumatus)

Red-billed Shrike  (Prionops retzil)

Black Cuckooshrike  (Campephaga flava)

Paradise Flycatchers   (Terpsiphone viridis)

Collared Sunbirds    (Hedydipna collaris)

Scarlet-chested Sunbirds    (Chalcomitra senegalensis)

Broad-billed Rollers   (Eurystomus glaucurus)

African Yellow White-eye   (Zosterops senegalensis)

Cardinal Woodpeckers   (Dendropicos fuscescens)

Forest or Dark-backed Weavers   (Ploceus rubiginosis)

Great Spotted Cuckoo  (Clamator glandarius)

Red-Chested Cuckoo  (Cuculus solitarius)

Forktailed Drongos  (Dicrurus adsimilis)

Bulbuls

Mourning Doves

Cinnamon or Lemon Dove  (Aplopelia larvata)

Francolin

We also have a variety of night birds in the form of owls, such as the Veroux, as well as nightjars, etc.

 

Video#4-:The Weaver and The Adder

O’D was very excited when these two Dark Backed Forest Weavers decided to make their nest in the kapok tree right next to our sitting room window.

Unfortunately, we were in Chimoio on the day Mrs. Forest Weaver decided she didn’t like the way her husband had built the nest and had a nasty tantrum.  Douglas, our cook, was in the kitchen at the time and saw her throw it down on the ground.  He was quite shocked by her behaviour.  Up to then he had thought birds all had sweet little natures.

The nest O’D filmed was Mr. Forest Weaver’s second attempt and much to our relief as well as his, the new nest met with his wife’s approval.

The film of the Gaboon viper dragging off an adult Crested guinea fowl it had just killed was a real piece of luck.

One of our workers came across it on our track as he went off to tea one morning and ran back to tell O’D to bring his camera.

The sight had such an impact on us that several of our workers had terrible nightmares that night and for days afterwards we all clomped around in gumboots, despite the sweltering heat.

To watch Video click the You Tube Link Below-:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeXLoy7VWg0&feature=channel

O’D and Geoffery - How to rear a little orphaned Genet (Genetta tigrina - large-spotted genet)

This is especially for you, Greta!

This little genet is just one of the many casualties of forest destruction. As more and more people turn indigenous forests into fields, more and more animals are losing their habitats. They either have to find a refuge (such as our little patch of forest) or else they end up dying out and becoming extinct.

We rarely buy the baby animals the locals bring to us. This is because we don’t want to encourage them to kill the parents in order to sell the young. However, when a young fellow came to our shop and offered two tiny, un-weaned genet kittens for sale, O’D found it impossible to say ‘no’ to them.

Unfortunately, the young local had fed the little genets with some sadza (cooked mealie meal) and this had played havoc with their tiny systems. Geoffrey, as we later called him when we discovered he was a male, is the only survivor of a family of four.

He’s only about three weeks old in this film and missing his mother terribly. And, as you can see, the first couple of feeding times with O’D turned out to be quite a messy business!

Two weeks later, Geoffrey had settled down to his new life. An incredibly fast little runner on his short, stocky legs, he loved playing hide and seek and being chased. And whenever I picked up the broom to sweep out his rooms, he liked to run straight up me and sit on top of my head to watch. It’s advisable, by the way, to wear long sleeves and trousers around genets!

Allan Schwarz, who knows ALMOST everything about everything, has told us we have to keep Geoffrey until he’s six months old and strong enough to survive on his own in the forest. Hopefully, as genets are nocturnal and solitary creatures, he won’t find life too difficult when we let him go back to the wild.

To Watch Video Click You Tube Link Below/Copy and Paste To Your Address Bar-:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhQdcNPiYwg