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#9 5/10

8/10

Well done Louis Dreyer!

Gryskopvisvanger, 50% is not too bad for this challenge!

5/10 again! Surprised at some that I had correct

Not bad Umtali1!

Thank you very much Adrianp for all the time and effort going into putting these challanges together. We all appreciate it very much. Well done Louis and all the others taking part. Its all about taking part and learn a lot. 9/10 for me.

Very well done Ladybirder!

Here is challenge #10 of 2013

All the birds are IDable from the features shown in the pictures.

Looking forward to receiving your answers Have fun!!

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8

A very quiet week…. Less than 10 entries. I think my cisticola scared everybody away. Well done to Ladybirder with a top score of 9/10!!!
#1 Juvenile Little Grebe (Dabchick)

#2 Victorin’s warbler (everybody got this!!)

#3 Orange Breasted Sunbird (Female)

#4 Juvenile helmeted guineafowl

I was surprised how many got this common species wrong… I guess the adults are quite good at hiding the youngsters before they are big enough to take out in the open.
#5 Cape Spurfowl

#6 Booted eagle (pale morph)

#7 Pearl Breasted Swallow (one of the hardest)


This one had me going for a while, as it displayed typical barn swallow behaviour such as sitting on the dirt roads in overcast conditions (why do they do that????) and by association with Barn Swallows. I almost dismissed it as a juvenile Barn Swallow, if it were not for the fact that there was something not quite right about it.

You can see in the above picture there is one pearl breasted swallow among the group of barn swallows.


After looking at the next picture, then penny dropped. I initially dismissed the whole lot as barn swallows based on the behaviour, but when I reviewed the pictures I put 2 +2 together, and realised that the Karoo is “the spot” for Pearl breasted swallows. This picture was taken along the river just outside Oudshoorn.
#8 Common fiscal juvenile

#9 Zitting Cisticola (sorry nobody got this )

My apologies for this one, I tried to put in a sound clip, but my IT skills let me down here. If you got this down to a short tailed cisticola, then that is about as close as you will get on physical features. You need the call to nail it down 100%. By the way it was singing its head off while I took this.
#10 White Throated Swallow
The best captions:
“UNFAIR!!! Where’s MINE?”
“DAD!!! He’s choking!!”

Thank you so much AdrianP! Sorry for the low amount of entries! Maybe the cricket has got something to do with it? I wouldn't know.

Maybe the birders are just not interested in these challenges anymore? If so, they must please just let us know, because a lot of time and effort goes into these challenges!

To all participants of the bird ID challenges:

Please let me know whether you are interested in carrying on with these challenges or not?

YES PLEASE.

I have learned so much and I really appreciate the effort that goes into compiling them.

YES PLEASE, PLEASE. I know it's very hard work. We really appreciate it. I particpate every time but just forget to put my scores on. Will do it in future. I really learn a lot out of the ID's.

I sincerely hope to get more than two "yes"-responses during this coming week! Thank you for your responses Umtali1 and Jakkie Human!

Jakkie Human, there is no need to put your scores up if you don't want to. It is entirely every participant's prerogative whether they want to make their scores known or not. You normally get high scores anyway, and all of us know that, but it doesn't matter if you don't want to mention it.

The challengers are the ones doing the hard work, and we should make it worthwhile for them to spend time to try and help us identifying those birdies. That's why I urge all the birders to please participate!

a definite yes pleaaaase for me. If there are no challanges anymore , we won't use our books, and thus not learn anymore.

That is very true Ladybirder! Thank you for your positive response!