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I think a very fair challenge this week, with some easy ones and a few to give some thought to.

The turn out was a bit disappointing this week with only 12 entries! Come on the rest of you!

The average score was 9.3 / 11 with an average of 84%.

Answers to challenge 40

#1 Greater Pelican (12) – as all of yoy have this one right, no need for further explanations.

#2 African Harrier Hawk (11), southern Banded Snake Eagle (7)
This is the photo before the one used in the challenge. (Great photos JVR) Just about all of you correctly Id’d the Harrier-hawk and with the diagnostic single tail band, it should have been quite easy. Most of you then assumed that the other bird must be either a female or juvenile. Do not always take two raptors together for granted as the same species, especially when it involves African Harrier-Hawks. I have on a few occasions seen them take on any other raptor they encounter in their air space, usually just mock attack as in this case. What is even more confusing here is that the Snake Eagle is almost the exact same grey as the Harrier-hawk, but the Juvenile Harrier-hawk has a brown body and the fore part of the underwing also brown, where the SB Snake eagle has a grey head, and no brown on the fore wing.

#3 Red form of Karoo Lark (8)– Most of you tought that this was a Sabota Lark, but the colouring on the belly is just to dark for this. The prominent rufous ear coverlets combined with the rufous crown should have ruled this out from Sabota ,with a striped crown and paler striped ear coverlets. Red Lark is much closer to this species, but the bill is much heavier. Well done to Guinea Pig who narrowed this down to the red form (central race)

#4 Southern Carmine bee-eater (juv) (12) – all of you had this one right, although it is not an easy Id, as a number of the guides does not display the juvenile, but the GISS and tail probably helped you narrow it down.

#5 Barrows Korhaan (4) – Probably the toughest one this week, much to my amazement, as i ID'd the photo sent to me quite quickly! Most answers were for Karoo Korhaan, but there are a few things that distinctly does not make it this. Karoo Korhaan has more yellow legs opposed to Barrows with paler legs (although this is very difficult to ID) They key is that the Karoo has a distinct black throat, which this bird does not have (the dark mark is a shadow). The light brown colouring of the Karoo goes much further down the belly, in a lot of specimens there is no clear white belly, where Barrows has a distinct white belly (from that the old name of White-bellied Korhaan). The second alternative is a female Black-Bellied Bustard, and the real distinguisher here is the uniform brown wing and back vs. the more streaked appearance of the bustard and the lack of the black nape.

#6 Spotted Creeper (10) Yes, this might not be the best picture of this bird, but in reality this is pretty much how one would see this very secretive bird. The two wrong answers on this one indicated woodpeckers, but the barring on the tail is too heavy and thus one needed to look at a bird with a similar GISS, wich should leave you with one alternative, being the Creeper.

#7 Black Coucal (12) and SMW (not counted) – At first this looks like a widowbird, but once you compare it to the SMW, the size difference makes this an easy id as there is only one black bird with rufous wings in this size.

#8 Black Cuckooshrike female (9)– Most wrong answers were for a female Diderick Cuckoo. The yellow should have rules this out as the Diderick has green and not yellow. The Cuckooshrike also has a barred chest opposed to the sposts on the Diderick
#9 Yellow-throated Sandgrouse – (11) GISS is clearly a sandgrouse, the distinct yellow throat on the male unmistakeably ID this bird.
#10 Dickensons Kestrel (12). This one has me astounded! As this this not a very common raptor, very few of us, including myself have seen this bird, yet you all ID’d it correctly. The grey plumage, barring on the tail with the distinct yellow on the face, does make this an easy ID.

Have fun with challenge #41!

Should not be too difficult this week

Challenge 42

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Only just got back from Kruger, where connectivity was rather bad, and it seems the SANParks site doesn’t like slow connections, as I suffered from regular time-outs.

Results for Challenge #41:

So this time, as promised, an easier one, with some pretty obvious ones through to very tough ones.

The total number of entries totalled 14, and the class averaged 7.1/11, or 65 %. The answers:

#1 – Black-shouldered Kite (juv) (14): The tawny neck band indicating a juvenile.

#2 – Cape Canary (8): I thought this was an easy one, but I think the posture of the bird threw a lot of you. Overall yellow with grey mantle and nape (here only the grey sides of the neck visible, but still diagnostic).

#3 – Orange-river Francolin (14): Above mottled and streaked brown, conspicuous white eyebrow, below buff to pale rufous, streaked chestnut. Throat white, outlined narrowly with black.

#4 – Kurrichane Thrush (14): Grey-brown head and back, white throat with black malar stripe (diagnostic). Breast light grey, belly white in centre, tawny orange at sides. Orange bill.

#5 – Wattled Starling (f) (12): Typical Starling GISS. Pale grey head and body with white belly and black tail and flight feathers. Small yellow spot behind eye.

#6 – Arctic Tern (2): This was a very tricky one, with really four possiblities in the Common, Arctic, Antarctic and Roseate Terns. Making it more difficult was that it is a moulting bird, so not quite showing its full breeding or non-breeding plumage, and showing a transitional black and red bill. What clinched it was the longish, deeply forked white tail with white rump (Common and Roseate have grey rumps), mostly white underparts (Antarctic mostly grey), and black-edged underwing tip.

#7 – Tawny-flanked Prinia (8): Fence shows the very small size. Above greyish-brown with rufous rump and tail (longish), Flight feathers edged rufous. White eyebrow with black eyestripe. Underparts white with pale tawny flanks.

#8 – Brown-backed Honeybird (4): Another tricky one. Very small, fairly dark, grey-brown head and back. Fairly long, thin bill. White throat (not visible) and underparts, with white outer tail feathers.

#9a – Little Stint (6): Small Sandpiper-like bird with fairly short, straight bill. Above mottled grey-brown with light V on mantle. Below white, tinged grey at sides of breast. Narrow white wingbar in flight, rump black in centre, white at sides.

#9b – Red-necked Phalarope (5): Pretty easy to ID this as a Phalarope. Bill roughly the length of the head, all-black and very thin diagnostic (heavier and with yellow base in Red Phalarope). Grey back with white wingbar in flight. Rump dark in centre, white on sides.

#10 – Bennett’s Woodpecker (f) (13): Above barred yellow on olive. Hindcrown red, forecrown speckled black-and-white with brown throat and earpatch diagnostic of female.


Unfortunately I’m not giving you an analysis of the wrong ID’s this week, as I simply don’t have the time… Sorry.

Well done to all!

Bird ID Challenge # 43:

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Remember to submit your answers to the one that posted the week’s challenge!

Good luck!

Participation is still a bit low with 13 entries this week. Average score was 8.7 (88%), thus a fairly easy one.

#1 House Martin (7) – I tried to show two birds in the photo to allow you to see that the shadows on the neck is exactly that and not a uniform band as this would separate Sand Martin from Common House Martin. The full white underside, dark wings and tail is then distinctly House Martin. BTW if it was grey wings and tail (lighter dark) it could have been a Grey Rumped Swallow.

#2 Arrow-marked Babbler (13) all had this one correct so no detail description needed

#3 African Hawk Eagle(13) – Well done all on the Hawk-Eagle – all of you had it right, as one entry said – unmistakable!

#4 Yellow billed Duck and duckling (13) – See ducklings are easy! All of you had this one right too – due to the mothers back? Well that narrowed the choices down, and then the bill staring to turn yellow on the duckling made it easy.

#5 Caspian Tern(10) – well done to JVR on this shot. The bird shook itself in mid flight, providing this odd photo. The wrong answers I had were all for Royal Tern, but the heavy red (not yellow) bill rules this out. The black feet combined with that heavy bill rules out the smaller terns such as Common and Arctic.

#6 Little Swift (10) – the two wrong answers I had for this one was Banded Marting and SA Cliff-swallow. Both these species have “spectacles” around the eyes, where this one only have the white on the top of the head and chin. I myself was amazed at the amount of white on top of the head, but the Little Swift easily identifiable due tot eh white chin and white fore-head. BTW the nest is a SA Cliff-swallow nest. Little Swifts frequently take over their old nests.

#7 Immature Kelp Gull (10) – The heavy Gull bill is the key thing to look out for. The bill is far too heavy to be a shearwater. The mottled brown body and upper wings should also eliminate the shearwaters and other brown sea birds. The feet are too pale for a Lesser Back-backed Gull.

#8 Ruddy Turnstone (13)all had this one correct so no detail description needed

#9 Cape Robin-chat (12) – Pretty much everyone had this one right. The grey head with white eyebrow, red under the chin and red upper rump are the key things to look for.

#10 Pygmy Goose –(13)all had this one correct so no detail description needed

Challenge 44

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Only just got back from my trip to the USA, so have a crazy work backlog, so the birding side of life is taking the back seat (I should really get my priorities straight!!!).

Results for Challenge #43:

I decided to give you guys a break and made it a very easy one, with only one tough one thrown in to test you. The total number of entries totalled 15, and the class averaged 8.4/10, or 84 %!

The answers:

#1 – Goliath Heron (imm) (15/15): You aced it. Interesting to see the white underparts indicative of imm.

#2 – Thick-billed Weaver (nest) (13/15): If you've seen one before, then you'll never forget it! One of the loveliest nest around. This is where Newman's is a very handy guide, as it clearly illustrates all the different Weaver nests.

#3 – Grey-backed Camaroptera (11/15): (Previously known as Grey-backed Bleating Warbler) The cocked tail is indicative of a Bleating Warbler (worldwide). Grey back, green wings. Wrong ID's were for Green-backed Camaroptera and Yellow-breasted Apalis (but both have green backs).

#4 – Collared Sunbird (f) (14/15): Below bright yellow, above irredescent green. Bill short for a Sunbird. Yellow throat indicative of female.

#5 – Spotted Thick-knee (12/15): You all got the Thick-knee part right! The bright yellow eye and base of bill (compared to pale-yellow), along with heavier spotting and fainter malar stripe tells this apart from the Water Thick-knee.

#6 – Wire-tailed Swallow (15/15): The all-rufous crown diagnostic.

#7 – Swee Waxbill (f & imm) (15/15): The hint of red on the lower mandible diagnostic. No black faces points to female, and only vestigial red lower mandible in some points to juv.

#8 – Stark's Lark (4/15): The tough one this week. Sand-coloured Lark with heavy buff streaking on crown and back. Large pale eyering. Bill light pinkish horn-coloured and fairly long and heavy, setting it apart from Sabota, Fawn-coloured and Sclater's (dark bills) and Botha's and Pink-billed (finer, pinker bills).

#9 – Cardinal Woodpecker (m) (14/15): The easiest distinguishing feature would be the brown forecrown. Bright red hindcrown indicative of male.

#10 – African Stonechat (f) (13/15): Above dark, streaked grey-brown, chest and flanks rufous, throat and belly pale, vent white, tail dark. Wrong ID's were Cape Rock-jumper (f) (but entire underparts and tail darker rufous) and Common Redstart (but pale grey upperparts and rufous tail).

Well done to all!

Bird ID Challenge # 45:

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Remember to submit your answers to the one that posted the week’s challenge!

Good luck!

Answers on No 44

This week we had 14 entries with 2 fulls scores achieved. The average for this one was 82%

1 Spectacled Weaver (4) – although the bird appears slightly green, this is due to foliage with early morning sun. The yellow eye should draw the attention and then one should see that there is enough of the pointed stripe behind the eye to make it a Spectacled Weaver. - Yellow weaver has a red eye, and cape's darker area is "smudged", and Sombre Greenbul does not have black around the eye. [/color]

2 Juv Green Twinspot (12)– The Female Twinspot is the easiest to recognize out of the field guides – with the green back and chest, without any red in the face. There is no other waxbill, finch or other similar sized bird in all green. Roberts Multimedia has a very nice photo.

3 Dark Chanting goshawk (11) – The upright position should lead one to the Goshawks. Then with the red legs and yellow eye, it is clearly a sub-adult. Pale chanting and Dark Chanting are the two with brown chests, and then the Dark Chanting has a uniform dark brown breast, where the Pale Chanting has a more mottled chest.


4 Swallow-tailed bee-eater (13) The lack of brown on the neck, blue rump, light brown underwing and very dark terminal band on flight feathers disqualifies blue-cheeked Bee-eater, which would be the closest alternative.

5 Schalow's Turaco (8) – Maybe a bit of a nasty one on my side as the range in Southern Africa is very limited. A few called this a purple crested, but the green on the chest and back makes it one of the green Turaco’s. The extra long crest seen in flight is the key to this being a Schalows.

6 Black bellied Starling (11) – Although the birds have bluish heads the very dark, dull body is the key here, where all the other blue starlings would have more of a blue or greenish sheen visible. Of course seen within the birds habitat would make the ID significantly easier being a forest species.

7 African Snipe (15) – All had this one right.

8 Little Grebe (14) – The red in the plumage distinguishes this from White-Backed Duck, with which it could have been confused

9 Wood Owl (15) – All had this right

10 Red-billed Francolin (15) – All had this right – Yellow eye ring is distinctive.

Challenge 46

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Enjoy your weekly fix!

Hi all, from the UK.

Results for Challenge #45:

When I was offered the pics to use for this week’s challenge, I initially thought it too tough. But working through it I soon realised that it’s not that tough after all, but admittedly bad quality pics. But in my mind that doesn’t mean it’s not usable, so decided to use them “as is” after all!

The total number of entries totalled 17, and the class averaged 5.35/10, or 54 %. The answers:

#1 – White-backed Vulture (10/17): The white on the back clearly shows where this Vulture got it’s name! Many of you called it African Fish-Eagle, but this would have had a white tail.

#2 – Common Whitethroat (f) (7/17): It seems the lighting made this one tough, as it made it look a bit lighter than usual. Above rusty, below buff-white, pinkish bill. Paler colouring is that of female.

#3 – Tinkling Cisticola (9/17): Crown, eye-stripe and ear coverts rufous, conspicuous white eyebrow, tail bright russet.

#4 – Lark-like Bunting (8/17): Nondecript brown seedeater with small conical bill, above streaked black on brown, wings brown edged light rufous.

#5 – Sandwich Tern (9/17): Black bill with yellow tip makes this unmistakeable.

#6 – Cut-throat Finch (f) (4/17): This was by far the toughest one, and quite a nasty picture! You can actually make out the shape of the bill to be of a seedeater… Head brown with black barring (making it appear almost dark-grey), below fawn with fine black barring on chest and down to flanks.

#7 – Southern Black Flycatcher (10/17): Will always be tricky… Definitely not Fork-tailed Drongo, as the outer tail would flare significantly. Eye almost appears red, which might throw you, but looking closer you’ll see it’s just a play of light. What I learnt from this myself, is that you can actually distinguish on bill – it would be much heavier in a Drongo. Another feature (but possibly not always rule-of-thumb) is habitat – Square-tailed Drongo is not found out in the open.

#8 – Victorin’s Warbler (11/17): Above and entire face grey, below russet brown. Creamy eye.

#9 – Golden-tailed Woodpecker (m) (16/17): You almost aced this one… Hindcrown red, forecrown mottled red and black in male. Only one wrong guess of Bennett’s, but would have had a clean face.

#10 – Common Tern (br) (7/17): It was either this or the Roseate Tern, but the latter would have had a white belly, possibly tinged pink.

Well done to all! I’m glad to see that a tough challenge does not discourage you from participating, and I feel there was a lot to be learnt from this week!

And you guys don't have to look forward to the next challenge any longer! I just arrived back from Europe, and due to a crazy schedule tomorrow, I'm posting the challenge a bit earlier than usual, so you have more time for this one than usual! An easier one too...

Bird ID Challenge # 47:

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Remember to submit your answers to the one that posted the week’s challenge!

Good luck!

Answers to Challenge 46
Thanks for the good participation on no 46, with 18 entries received. The average score was 8.83 with the average being 80%, and only two really tricky ones.

1 Black Winged Stilt (18) – All had this one right.
1a Common Sandpiper (16) – all had this one right, but the wing bars are the key feature to look out for.

2 Amur Falcon Female (12)– In using this challenge I noticed that not all Amur falcons are exactly the same, in this photo that I received the vent is noticeably rufous, but another photo that I have the vent is pale. They key is really to look at the red feet and beak in conjunction with the rufous vent, as it is only this species that has this.

3 Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Juv (16)– what would make one hesitate on this one is the pale beaks, but the rest fits the grey headed sparrow. A few of the guides have a head shot of the juvenile with the pale beak.

4 Forest Canary – (17) Overall canary shape (GISS) should lead one to this family and the heavy streaking on the belly is then distinctively Forrest Canary.

5 Violet-backed Starling Female & Juv (16) – The female and young ones are probably the most misleading starlings, as the stripes do not fit in well with the look of the rest of the starling family. The posture though is very much in line with starlings.

6 Kalahari Scrub Robin (14) – The two likely candidates here would be white-browed Scrub-robin and Kalahari Scrub-Robin. The stance with the flicked up tail and the rufous rump, should have narrowed it down to these to. As there is no white wing bars, this then can only be Kalahari Scrub-robin.

7 Cape Longbilled Lark (7) – I thought that this would be the most challenging id in this weeks challenge but it was in close competition with no 9. First call to make would be between larks and pipits. Mostly the pipits have plainer backs, apart from Short-tailed, but it is a much more compact bird in its general appearance. And the tail is too long. With the larks we then have four options that have a heavily streaked head, Sabota, Cape Clapper, Large billed and the Long-billed’s. Sabota is to squat and compact, Cape clapper has grey uppers but a rufous head and rufous belly, which this does not have, Large billed is totally rufous, with much too heavy streaking on the chest and belly. Of the Long-billed, Cape long-billed has the pale belly with the streaking that go right down to the flanks, and thus by elimination we can Id this bird without seeing the bill.

8 Red-headed Finch (15) – Size became difficult here with nothing to compare to but the full red head right to the back of the head and fairly uniform grey back and white wing-bar clinches the id.

9 Coqui Francolin Female (10). I had an almost equal amount of entries for Shelly’s than for Coqui! The two birds are difficult to tell apart in this case as you only see one bird, but out in the bush, your chances of finding a Coqui Francolin without a male present should be slim.



So highlighted here are the key differences, with Shelley’s on the left and Coqui on the right. Shelley’s has a much heavier bill, and Coqui has that large whitish brow with the rufous cap, and is not as white on the neck. I find that most of the guides do not display Coqui that clear at it seems that the barring on the belly go right up to the neck. You will find that Coqui also has the brownish chest, but the feathers are a uniform brown, where Shelley’s has a two tone of lighter and darker brown. The barring on Coqui is also much finer (less blotchy) than on Shelley’s

10 Red-faced Mousebird Juv (17) – Almost all had this one right. Although still juvenile, there is only one mousebird with bare skin around the eye.

glad to see a few more scores for no 47!

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Results for Challenge #47:

This week was an easier one, but as it goes against my principles to make it TOO easy, I had to at least get creative and throw in a few VERY sneaky pictures! Four of the pictures I took on the Farne Islands recently, so it shows them in full breeding plumage instead of the typical non-breeding we would see. But with that said, it is fairly common to see migrant breeders here in breeding plumage early summer or late summer.

The total number of entries was only 14 (maybe due to the holidays?), and the class averaged a very good 7/10, or 70 %. The answers:

#1 – Arctic Tern (br) (6/14): The full black crown indicates that this is breeding plumage of one of the many black-crowned, red-billed, red-legged, grey Terns. The shortish all-red bill (black tip in Roseate) and very short all-red legs, white lower face and throat (grey throat in Antarctic (br)), light-grey chest and underparts (white to pinkish in Roseate) and long white tail streamers extending beyond wingtips (shorter than wingtips in Common) makes this identifiable.

#2 – Fairy Flycatcher (13/14): Probably one of the most unmistakeable (and beautiful!) birds of Southern Africa. Black face mask with white borders, grey chest, crown and back, black wings with distinct broad white wingbar and (usually) pink tinting of white belly.

#3 – Black-legged Kittiwake (br) (8/14): Typical Gull appearance, but all-white head and body with plain grey wings with black tips, and finer than usual all-yellow bill.

#4 – White-bellied Sunbird (f) (8/14): Easily narrowed down to one of three female Sunbirds, listed in order of shading of underparts: Dusky (totally white), White-bellied (mostly white with a hint of yellow) and Variable (creamy yellow).

#5 – Brown-hooded Kingfisher (14/14): Heavy red bill with black tip makes this unmistakeable among Kingfishers.

#6 – Plain-backed Pipit (4/14): Overall tawny colouring, plain upperparts, lack of distinct markings on chest and underparts, pale buffy outer primary tail feathers, light yellow lower mandible. Has a fairly typical stance as in picture.

#7 – Black-throated Canary (9/14): Streaked crown, darkish-grey cheeks, short white eyebrow, black throat patch (even though this is sometime only vestigial or even completely lacking).

#8 – Sandwich Tern (br) (11/14): Black bill with yellow tip makes this unmistakeable.

#9 – Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starling (13/14): One of three closely similar glossy Starlings that can at times be difficult to discern. But in the right light… Blackish ear patch and royal blue belly and flanks.

#10 – Eurasian Oystercatcher (13/14): The heavy, straight, long red bill immediately points to an Oystercatcher. As the African Black Oystercatcher is ALL BLACK, it only leaves the Eurasian.

Well done to all! And hopefully the number of participants will increase again…