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26 January 2024: Day 8, Hwange Nationwide Park, Zimbabwe — Street Scholar Southern Africa Birding Safari. Click on right here to see (usually) the place I’m right now.
Although I can establish birds by music at house, it’s virtually not possible to do in southern Africa amongst birds I’ve by no means heard earlier than. To organize for this journey I frolicked studying concerning the birds I would see. Then I found their odd and distinctive sounds. Right here’s a pattern of some notable ones.
Babble: Arrow-marked babblers (Turdoides jardineii), pictured above, are gregarious birds that nest cooperatively and like to sing collectively. One or two birds could begin the babbling music, then everybody joins in. Even after the cacaphony stops just a few will mutter to one another. Babblers are members of the Laughingthrush household (Leiothrichidae). Once I take heed to them it makes me chortle.
Ring: The tropical boubou or bellshrike (Laniarius main) is a frequent singer with a bell-like voice. Contact calls like bou, hou, boubou or bobobobo give the chook its title however in music its vocal repertoire actually shines. Boubous typically duet in male-female pairs or two males in adjoining territories who call-and-respond so shortly that they sound like one chook. The songs are so superb that I’ve included three examples.
Toot: The pearl-spotted owlet (Glaucidium perlatum) is the smallest owl in southern Africa, comparable in measurement to our northern saw-whet owl. Although they aren’t in the identical genus, the owlet’s name jogs my memory of a saw-whet’s toot aside from this: The owlet toots louder and better till he drops off on the finish.
Shout: The hadada ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) is simply plain loud. His title comes from his extraordinarily loud and distinctive “haa-haa-haa-de-dah” name which he makes all yr lengthy, particularly at daybreak and nightfall. Hadada ibises at the moment are quite common in suburbs the place folks hear them daily. Think about one shouting out of your roof.
For extra sounds of the African bush, together with mammals and frogs, see Derek Solomon’s wildlife sound recordings.
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