Beyond 300 and counting

Last time I blogged about my Birding Big Year I was sitting 27 short 300 birds seen for my big year list. At that point I thought reaching 300 was going to take extra effort, however with a trip around West Africa I raced past 300. Birding across West Africa has been very interesting, to see other parts of West Africa and how they fair for birds. Birding always poses challenges, particular when one is looking for the odd secretive one, the less common one or just a new species. Timing is everything and time needs to be spent concentrating on birds otherwise they just fly pass without a second look and the next thing you know, you have moved out of a great birding area and sitting in the middle of a city watching a Common bulbul pecking at a mango, with no other bird in site.

An elephant at Nazinga cooling off in the dam

Thus my list started to grow before I went off the Burkino Faso and Côte d’Ivoire with an intensive birding session at Serarou. Walking down the forest walk I was able to find the Greater honeyguide and an unexpected Oriole warbler. The Oriole warbler is a dull bird with a striking iridescent dark blue head which gives it an oriole look. A large warbler the bird guidebook under plays the size and general appearance of the bird. The Greater honeyguide was being chased around by a Lesser honeyguide after a bee-hive had been raided by locals causing some hype amongst the honeyguides in the area (a friendly reminder of the symbiotic role between honeyguide and human). I was also able to add two weavers that I had kept an eye on over the last few weeks as they were starting to go into their breeding plumage. In full plumage I was able to identify the Heuglin’s weaver and Black-necked weaver.

Beautiful Sunbird

Two days later I was off of a trip through West Africa, north of the rain forest, later heading down into them. My Big Year list started off slow and didn’t lengthen at all the first day. This was partially due to me having already birded the area we were leaving from and travelling is never birder friendly. On the drive we pasted many nesting sites of White-billed buffalo weavers and Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weavers, their nests very similar to their Southern African relatives. Having never seen them before it was painful watching glimpses of the birds fly past as we were making up for time to get to Quagadougou before dark. It was only until the next day I could add one more. Having spent the night in Quagadougou, Burkino Faso, I was having my early morning cup of tea in the garden when I was joined by a Beautiful sunbird investigating the flowers in the garden. Red-cheeked cordonbleu and the ever common Red-billed firefinch were also around. Sorting out visa’s in the morning, the rest of the day was spent driving south to a game farm, again passing by White-billed weaver and Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver nest along the way. We got to the game farm late and in the dark, however up early the next day I walked around with my binoculars pealed to my head. It was here I found the Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver and White-billed buffalo-weavers for my list, along with and strangely enough my first Northern grey-headed sparrow. With many species I had seen before we moved on down to Nazinga game ranch.

Pygmy Kingfisher at Nazinga

At Nazinga game ranch my list really took off. It is amazing how bird species densities increase as human population numbers decrease. Driving into Nazinga and stopping at a hide over a dam, the species diversity was good enough to keep any birder happy, it was here that I got a great sighting of three king fishers; Malachite, Pied and Pygmy kingfisher, with only the Pygmy kingfisher being a new one for my list. Red-throated bee-eaters, were common, so were the Beautiful sunbirds. On we went and got to the main camp early enough to do an afternoon drive. Birding was excitable, with some larger raptors, such as Bateleurs, African harrier-hawks and African hawk-eagles could be seen. A Woodchat shrike was also spotted and this time I got a good look at a Northern red-billed hornbill. See if you can spot the difference with the Southern red-billed hornbill. With two new birds for my Big Year in one day I was pretty excited, however it was the next day that got the list leaping forward.

Southern Red-billed hornbill (Kruger Park)

 

Northern Red-billed hornbill (Nazinga)

Red-throated Bee-eater

Early morning start I was to be serenaded by Bruce’s pigeons, the yellow flanks very diagnostic. Driving around, I was able to pick-up Swallow-tailed bee-eater, Stone partridge, Grey kestrel, Eurasian hoopoe and White-shouldered black-tit. Seeing the Swallow-tailed bee-eater was as spectacular as the book makes them out to be. The Grey kestrel was a great find, during another tea session next to a pan and when we had left we came across the stone partridge moving on the ground under a tall forest patch. That afternoon without having to rush anywhere, we sat at the hide outside the camp and watched over the course of the afternoon four elephant bulls come down to drink and wallow in the dam. I decided to touch up on my swallow ID skills and possibly get some new ones for my list. I was fortunate for at least 5 different swallow species were flying around; Lesser-striped swallow, Mosque swallow, Barn swallow, Red-rumped swallow and Pied-winged swallow. With the last two being lifers and with the Mosque swallow I added three to my Big Year list. The Pied-winged swallow behaves very different to the rest of the swallows, it has a larger “turning circle” when coming down to drink and often flies up high before it loops around to come back down to drink. The drive out we stopped by the hide we had stopped by on the way in, Black scimitarbill was spotted and the Red-wing pytilia, I spotted a flycatcher like bird but the sighting was so fleeting I was unable to Identify it, I suppose 15 new birds in the last 24 hours had to do. Along with all the excitement of new birds, two Abyssinian ground-hornbill were seen while driving around.

Beautiful sunbird juvenile changing
into adult plumage

Back in Quagadougou and making my way down to Côte d’Ivoire, travelling was again the downside when finding new birds but we got to Korhogo in Côte d’Ivoire and an easy tick was the White-crowned robin-chat. Although puzzling to think there is a difference in this species and the Snowy-crowned robin-chat there is. In seeing the two species now it is rather clear. What the books don’t tell you is that the Snowy-crowned robin-chat has a crown surrounding the head with a dark patch running over the top of the head dividing the crown. The White-crowned robin-chat lacks this. Size difference is also noticeable with the White-crowned robin-chat being larger. Although Korhogo didn’t produce any other lifers or Big Year ticks, climbing a large rocky outcrop on the edge of town produced a sighting of Lanner falcons I will never forget. We got to the top of this outcrop and set-off one Lanner falcon into flight, he came around and dived bombed us several times, while calling before he went off and flew around the outcrop with his three other friends. We lay there watching the acrobatic displays before we had to head down.

Elephant Bull enjoying his afternoon swim at Nazinga Game Reserve

Spur-winged lapwing at Nazinga Game Reserve

From Korhogo I headed on South to Bouake and then spent two nights at Nzi River Lodge, along the banks of the Nzi River, the reserve has a great mix of patch forest and open savanna. Birding was as good as the other reserve I had visited, so I took a different approach and we walked through the forest until we came to a patch with some bird activity. Hiding away as best as we could, we sat dead still and listened for birds. This experience was well rewarded when the first bird that had warmed up to us, came into sight; a Green crombec, not long after that the Snowy-crowned robin-chats and Grey-backed cameropteras warmed up. Before we knew we were sitting quietly in the middle of a birding party. The striking Blue-billed malimbe came into view, the African paradise flycatchers made an appearance too. As the party started to move on a Finsch’s  flycatcher-thrush was feeding around us flying from branch to branch flycatcher-like in coming back to the same branch, but thrush-like as it scurried along the branch in pursuit of its prey, in one case a juicy green caterpillar. Back at the lodge while watching a troop of lesser spotted nosed monkeys feeding on the opposite bank movement in the water caught my eye and there to my surprise was an African finfoot. As most African finfoot sightings it disappear quickly, however later with the commotion of what we thought were monkeys and then splashing of water we looked over the balcony to find two male African finfoot (finfeet?) chasing each other up along the river bank, the one being chase lifting his wing over his back. Watching over the forest on the opposite bank a Piping hornbill male was attending to its nest flying back and forth the whole day. An afternoon walk around I got a great sighting of a Guinea turaco and European honey buzzard, along with an African cuckoo-hawk this made for a great day. In settling in for the night the owls calling in the forest makes any birder edgy wanting to catch a glimpse of the bird. With all the new night sounds I went to sleep knowing that there are still birds out there I haven’t seen. The next morning we took an early morning walk up past the dam near the lodge, it was a pleasant walk, Buffon’s kob run from us and the birds were out in full force once again. I added only one more to my life list and Big Year list that was the Northern puff-back, greyer and duller than its Southern counterpart.

Elephant coming down
to drink and cool off

The rest of the trip was not as exciting bird wise as it involved town trips and travelling south to Abidjane to catch a flight back to Cotonou. As uneventful as it was bird wise I did add the illusive Blue-bellied roller sitting on a power line to my list and the Rose-ringed parakeets were common along the beach front near Grand-Bassam. The flight back to Cotonou ends this birding excursion with my Big Year list sitting pretty on 316 birds.

316