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I think the very distinct white eye ring and the diffused separation between the brown breast and white belly is quite good for Collared Pratincole.

Only two reports yes, but I would like to see those photos. I think Niall was one of the birders who saw it.

http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.php?Spp=282

So it is a Collared Pratincole? The dull colours confused me - never to old to learn!

I'd be comfortable to tick it as Collared Pratincole yes.

At first I'd thought that this was a familiar chat, but now I'm wondering whether, because of the rufous-edged wing feathers, it may rather be the sicklewinged chat?





And is this perchance a fawncoloured lark (if it's possible to tell from the poor photo)?



Both seen at Mokala in late October 2012.

Looks good for sickle winged chat...the white throat is diagnostic.

Nice sighting!

Thanks adrian! Sometimes I just don't look closely enough, just assume that they're all familiar chats, but this one rather leapt out at me when I was going thru my photos.

Is my second bird a fawncoloured lark or is it impossible to tell definitively from the poor quality pic?

Some more larks that I'm not 100% sure about ... I think that all three of these are rufous-naped larks? All seen at Mokala in late October 2012.

1




2




3

1 and 3 look like Eastern Clapper to me. Number 2 looks good for Rufous-naped.

Thanks Matt, but I remain a bit confused What precisely are the differences between the Eastern clapper lark and the rufous-naped lark -- because all three of these look pretty much alike to me -- whereas the drawings of these two larks in my Newmans look somewhat different from each other ... I'd thought that what would appear (to me) to be a rufous crest/crown on all three of these birds were what made them all seem (to me) to 'fit' as rufous-naped for me

arks, sorry it's taken me so long to respond, I've been quite busy in the past few days. It's quite tough to describe the differences, they become much more obvious once you see them both out in the field. Two features I can point out here are that Rufous-naped has a more scaled appearance on the back, whereas E Clapper is more mottled on the back. Another one is that E Clapper is more uniformly coloured, and is rufous on the back and underneath, whereas Rufous-naped is usually a more two-toned bird that's lighter underneath. Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks Matt, it does help a bit. I do know that there were lots of clapper larks about when I was visiting Mokala, because they were doing that amazing wing-clapping thing, so I heard them more often than I saw them -- or so I thought In fact, it rather surprises me that some of my (many) lark photos should turn out to be of clapper larks, since I had the sense that they never stayed still long enough for pix. However, looking through more of my photos, I can clearly see that some of my larks have a more uniformly russet breast, while others have a lighter, buff-toned breast .... Thanks for giving me these criteria to help me with sorting out which are which

Another lark that I'm not 100% sure about. I'm thinking that this is an eastern longbilled lark? Seen at Mokala in late October 2012.

Hi friends,

We found in a tree at H7, KNP, January 2011, four birds together, as you can see in this picture.



A Cape-Turtle Dove, a Swainson's Francolin, a Magpie Shrike, and a fourth bird I just noticed now. I think it might be a Grey Penduline-Tit, but it is so far, see the cropped image. I am really in doubt.



Cheers
Charbel

Laughing dove