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Bokmakierie 259 December 2020 Bokmakierie Newsletter of the Witwatersrand Bird Club December 2020 No 259 Congratulations! Congratulations to Hanneline Smit-Robinson on acheiving her registration as a Class A ringer. In order to satisfy the requirements of Class A permit Hanneline has had to ring as a minimum, over 500 individual birds of 50 different species in conjunction with four other Class A permit holders. Hanneline is pictured here at Middlepunt with one of her first ringing acheivements. Bokmakierie Newsletter of the Witwatersrand Bird Club December 2020 No 259 Witwatersrand Bird Club Inside this issue: P O Box 641 Cresta 2118 2 Letter from the Chair Tel: 011 782 7267 3 South African Flufftails by Hugh Fax: 086 512 7696 Email: [email protected] Chittenden Web: www.witsbirdclub.org.za 11 Uk Overseas Territory Becomes One Of The World’s Biggest Sanctuaries 2020 Committee: For Wildlife by Martin Harper HON. PRESIDENT: Lance Robinson 13 Can Animals Use Iridescent Colours To Communicate? CHAIRMAN: Andy Featherstone 15 Six Days in Kruger Park by Anthony VICE-CHAIRMAN: Paige Simons Cavanagh TREASURER: Sandy Goodall 19 Male Violet-eared Waxbill Transition COURSES: Fiona van Zyl Plumages by Hugh Chittenden CONSERVATION: Lance Robinson 24 A Record-Breaking BBD In The NW MEETINGS: Diana Cowen Province by Lance Robinson WEBSITE Paige Simons 27 Nest sharing – Ostriches at Ezemvelo by Lesley Cornish PROGRAMME: Karin Mitton 31 Eyes Not Bigger Than The Stomach EAST RAND CHAIR: Awie Coetzee by Rolf Wiesler HENLEY-ON-KLIP CHAIR: Ben Botha 32 Quiz Page WEST RAND CHAIR: Allan Weideman 33 Junior Member Page CLUB SECRETARY: Lauraine Leigh 34 Birding in the Caribbean: Part 2, NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS Dominican Republic by Lesley Cornish Bokmakierie is published three times annually. Contribu- 42 Obituary: Willem Grobbelaar by Awie tions may be in Afrikaans or English. English names of birds should be those used in Roberts VII. Views expressed are Coetzee not necessarily those of the Editor, Club, the Committee, Members or those of BirdLife South Africa. The Editors 43 Abundance Of Prey Species Is Key reserve the right to edit articles as necessary. To Bird Diversity In Cities This issue of Bokmakierie has been produced and edited by Andy Featherstone and Lance Robinson. 45 Bird of the Year 2021 COVER PHOTO: Female Mocking Cliff Chat by Lesley 47 Rarities and unusual sightings report: Cornish MAGAZINE LAYOUT: Andy Featherstone 30 November 2020 by André Marx Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 | 1 Letter from the Chair review and amend to meet with Government our membership needs. regulations and restrictions We would particularly relating to the COVID-19 welcome suggestions for Pandemic. We will also talks and courses. continue to adhere to the The 2021 Annual General recommended precautions Meeting will also be held relating to social distancing, on Zoom on Thursday, 18th wearing of masks and recording of contact Dear Members, March, at 7pm. The intent is to keep the meeting as details while these are the A decision was taken at efficient and as short as necessary measures to our annual Committee possible. Do diarise to join take. Bosberaad in November us as a talk by Rick Nuttall We realise that in order to close our physical office on the Birds and Birding in for our Club grow and to at Delta Park. Lauraine the Memel District will also continue into the future, we has been working from feature as part of our AGM. need to try and attract and home since March, and As part of the online birding retain younger members. for the foreseeable future, Diana Cowen has put her therefore the office is not offering, we extend our congratulations to BirdLife hand up to oversee the being used and, due to the role of providing birding rental costs associated, it South Africa and their team for providing regular activities geared towards makes economic sense the youth, along with Johan to close it. Lauraine will Tuesday evening webinars on a range of interesting de Jager of the West Rand continue in her role as Satellite. If you have young Club Secretary and will be topics throughout the lockdown. Although they family members or know available as before. As a someone to which this result of the office closure, are taking a break for the December holidays, we offering may appeal to, we will be disposing of please let us know so that various items of office understand that a new season of Webinars will we can coordinate with furniture and books, these them going forward. We will be advertised for sale commence on the 19th January 2021. would also welcome any to members in due course. thoughts and suggestions All records and necessary The Programme Planning on how we can best provide documents will be retained Committee met in an interesting and varied and stored elsewhere. November and we will be programme for more junior For the first part of the year issuing a full programme for members. we will continue with our the period January – May 2021. We have included In closing, I would like to Monthly Meetings on offer wish you the compliments via the Zoom platform, a varied mix of traditional and new venues as well a of the season, a peaceful alternating between holiday and safe travels Thursday evenings and couple of long weekends for your enjoyment. All to those of you who are Saturday afternoons. venturing further afield. We would welcome outings and physical events your feedback, whether will remain subject to review positive or negative, so and may be cancelled or Andy Featherstone that we may constantly postponed in accordance 2 | Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 South African Flufftails Text and Photos by Hugh Chittenden Ever wondered why flufftails are called ‘flufftails’? It’s somewhat of an odd name for a family group, because not all flufftails have wispy, decomposed, fluffy tail feathers! Admittedly though, as a family group, they do have much softer tail feathers than most non-passerines. Of the 4 species that occur in South Africa, Red-chested definitely wins first prize for having the most fluffy tail! The closest thing to an ‘air- brush’ that I know of, and would be at home on any woman’s bedroom dresser! Below: Three tail examples, all males. Interestingly, females have a greater degree of tail ‘decomposition’ than males, especially in Buff-spotted and Striped, even though they occupy completely different habitats. And of course, their tails look less fluffy when wet. I consider myself very privileged to have photographed all four flufftail species that occur in South Africa. Well, not quite, but almost four! There are nine Flufftail species on the continent of Africa (incl Madagascar). Five spe- cies in southern Africa, and four in South Africa. Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 | 3 Red-chested Flufftail This species occupies the dampest habitat in the region. If you walk into the edge of a shallow reed bed, where you are standing in mud or in shallow water, try lying down on the mud with your eyes a few centimetre above the water or mud (below, left), and take a ground level look at what’s in front of you. Whether you’re at 6000 ft above sea level, or at 6 ft above sea level, this is the chosen habitat of Red-chested Flufftail. This is where they spend their lives, skipping over shallow water or soft mud, from one patch of vegetation to the next. Red-chested is one of the most widespread flufftail species on the continent. 4 | Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 Broad, dense undertail coverts that merge with the tail, giving it the appearance of having a thickset, fluffy tail. Like most flufftails, frustratingly shy, always alert, and ever on the ready to scamper off in a flash! Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 | 5 Striped Flufftail A species of moist, dense grassland, often along grassy hillside seeps, or adjacent small grassland streamlets. The chosen habitat of Striped Flufftail. The Striped Flufftail photos below were taken in the Drakensberg, 2000 masl. The photo on the right shows the damp grass territory occupied by this pair of flufftails. 6 | Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 Below: A male Striped Flufftail cautiously crossing a small open patch of moist upland grassland. Below: The male in a more relaxed mode, stretches his wings. This is the most difficult species to see in the region if one excludes the critically endangered White-winged Flufftail. Below: The male in a more relaxed mode, stretches his wings. Bokmakierie December 2020 No 259 | 7 Buff-spotted Flufftail - the region’s finest ventriloquist The ‘easiest’ flufftail to see in the region, although none of these secretive birds is anywhere near ‘easy’ to see! What strikes me most about this shy forest, or thicket species is its voice throwing capability. It is a remarkable ventriloquist, second to none in the region. Nearly 40 years ago, I remember hearing a Buff-spotted calling at the bottom of a well-wooded ravine. I quietly made my way down there and crawled the final few metres till I was sure that I was only metres from this elusive, haunting bird. Somehow the bird seemed to be moving to the left. Search as hard as I could, I couldn’t see a hint of any movement, nor hear the rustle of a leaf on the ground! This continued over a period of about 5 - 10 minutes, and all the while, I continued to shift my angle on the ground until I’d turned a full 360 degrees. How could the bird, which seemed only 4 or 5 metres away, have circled me without me even getting a glimpse of the ‘ghost’! Finally, and in sheer frustration, I made my way out that valley thicket, wondering where I’d gone wrong.
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