UCT Open Access Journals (Univ. of Cape Town)
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Nesting association between weavers and warblers (PHOWN 5)
Get PDFThe nesting association of warblers and Cape Weavers has not been reported before. Hockey (et al. 2005) mentioned warbler nests under nests of larger birds, without further details
Nest usurper - hanging by a thread
Get PDFThis is the first record of a Red-headed Finch being trapped in a weaver nest causing death
Fleeing by Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus in response to a recreational drone in Maputo Bay, Mozambique
Get PDFReport on an anecdotal observation of a flock of 40 Whimbrel reacting to the deployment of a recreational drone on the beach in Maputo Bay, Mozambique. The feeding flock responded rapidly on seeing the drone at ca. 20m altitude, taking flight and 'fleeing' in a way similar to the response to an aerial predator. Part of the flock then attempted to return to the nearby feeding area, before abandoning the vicinity and all birds retiring to the high tide roost earlier in the tide cycle than normal. Whimbrel in Maputo Bay are used to people, and reacted to the drone by fleeing at a greater distance than would normally be expected if the disturbance was simply from humans
Two is a company, three's a clutch in a suburban population of Red-eyed Doves
Get PDFThe doves and pigeons are characterized by small clutch sizes of 1?2 eggs and the production of crop milk. Reports of supernormal clutch size of three or more eggs are extremely rare. Here we provide the first evidence of three separate records of supernormal clutches/broods of three in the Red-eyed Dove. It is possible that a relatively high quality, protein-rich diet of adults and nestlings in this urban population may partially offset the lower protein content of seeds when the production of crop milk becomes insufficient to sustain the growing nestlings. This may enable parents to successfully produce and raise clutches of three
Cape Weaver nesting association and interactions with waterbirds
Get PDFA weaver-waterbird nesting association of three species, namely Cape Weavers, Reed Cormorants and a Hadeda Ibis pair, is described from Cape Town. The polygynous Cape Weavers were actively breeding from June to November 2015, with the Hadedas breeding from July to September, and the Reed Cormorants from late August to October. Several predators were seen in the area, but none elicited a response from the weavers or waterbirds, except a pair of calling Forest Buzzards which silenced the majority of the weaver colony. The weavers started building in the colony first, but when the cormorants arrived, the weavers seemed to build new nests around the cormorant nests
Fennoscandian-ringed Western Osprey recovery, Ingula, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Get PDFA Fennoscandian-ringed western osprey was sighted at Ingula on 14 November 2015 adjacent to the Braamhoek Dam (Figure 1-2). A colour-numeric ring was sighted on the right tarsus (JRW Yellow) and submitted for validation (metal ring M64850; SAFRING database). Recovery data confirmed that the respective bird was a juvenile male that had been ringed as a hatchling on 8 July 2015 in Kesalahti, Finland. The elapsed time between being ringed as a chick in Finland and recovery as a juvenile in South Africa was 131 days
Incubation behaviour of the White-browed Scrub-robin Cercotrichas leucophrys
Get PDFThe White-browed Scrub-robin is the most widespread of African robins, occurring throughout much of the low to moderate rainfall savannah woodlands in Africa. Although common throughout its range, its shy disposition and habit of darting for cover at the least provocation has made this species difficult to observe and, as such, various aspects of its general biology are still poorly known. Details of its incubation behaviour are particularly scant but are known to be performed by the female only, commence upon clutch completion and lasts 12 to 14 days. Nothing is known about the duration of its incubation shift lengths and nest attendance patterns
Bird distribution dynamics 3 - African Spoonbill Platalea alba in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland
Get PDFOverall, the most likely scenario is that the expansion in range and increase in abundance which the African Spoonbill clearly experienced for most of the 20th century has come to an end. It appears likely that the spoonbill has started to decrease in abundance in the two decades since SABAP2. Because of its nomadic behaviour, counts of African Spoonbills at individual wetlands are unlikely to be able to help us understand overall population trends. This is borne out by the results of CWAC surveys, where the graphics show large inter-year fluctuations at wetlands, with the largest value being an order of magnitude larger than the smallest. It is likely that an annual trend index based on the SABAP2 data will provide a reliable measure of population trend for African Spoonbill
Longevity of the Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris
Get PDFA Helmeted Guineafowl with ring 862414 was recaptured at Diep River wetland in Cape Town after 9 years 2 months 5 days (ringed at the same site), becoming the longevity record for this species. The previous record was 7 years 9 months 5 days
Green Wood-hoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus observed drinking
Get PDFFirst record of Green Wood-hoopoe drinking