We spotted a number these birds feeding next the road near the Letaba Camp in the Kruger National Park.

White Stork feeds on a wide variety of small animals: insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and birds. It gets most of its food off the ground, in low vegetation, and from shallow water. It is a monogamous breeder, but does not pair for life. The pair builds a large stick nest, which may be used for some years.

It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from the Sub-Sahara to South Africa, and on the Indian subcontinent.

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These birds live in low-altitude river valleys and floodplains, preferring vertical banks suitable for tunnelling when breeding. Their diet is made up mainly of bees and other flying insects, which they capture in the air, often perching around large animals waiting for insects to take flight. They are a sociable species and congregate in large flocks.

They’re migratory birds spending the breeding season, between August and November, in Zimbabwe, before moving to South Africa for the summer months, and then migrating to equatorial Africa from March to August.

This photo was taken in on the banks of the Letaba River in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.

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“Birds of Prey – The Dark Chanting Goshawk” Photograph by Dick Whitlock

The Dark Chanting Goshawk is a bird of prey and part of the Accipitridae bird species.

The Dark Chanting Goshawk (Melierax metabates) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. The Accipitridae also include many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers.

This hawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rain forests of the Congo basin. There is a small and declining isolated population in Morocco, and it also occurs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

It is a resident species of tropical and subtropical savannah. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays one or two eggs. It eats a variety of vertebrate prey and large insects.

The Dark Chanting Goshawk is a large, long-tailed, broad-winged hawk, with a 105 cm wingspan. It is slate-grey above and white with fine barring below. The tail is black and white. In flight, the wings are grey with black tips. The flight is stiff and mechanical.

This species derives its name from the breeding season song, which consists of chanted flutes and whistles.

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Ducks in a Row: A White-faced Whistling Duck and her brood. Taken at the Transport Dam near Pretoriuskop on my recent trip to the Kruger National Park.

More about the Whistling Duck

The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. They are not true ducks. In other taxonomical approaches, they are either considered a separate family “Dendrocygnidae”, or a tribe “Dendrocygnini” in the goose subfamily Anserinae (e.g. Terres & NAS, 1991).

The subfamily has one genus, Dendrocygna, which contains eight living species, and one known from hitherto undescribed subfossils from Aitutaki, Cook Islands (Steadman, 2006). These species have a worldwide distribution through the tropics and subtropics. These ducks have, as their name implies, distinctive whistling calls.

The whistling ducks have long legs and necks, and are very gregarious, flying to and from night-time roosts in large flocks. Both sexes have the same plumage, and all have a hunched appearance and black underwings in flight.

Source: Wikipedia Whistling Ducks

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“Face in Tree” by Ronel Jordaan

It looks like the face in the tree, have some type of grown on her head, and one can clearly see the mouth, nose and ears of what looks like a person in the tree.

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“Photograph of a Crested Barbet” – Photograph by Dick Whitlock

The Crested Barbet can be found in Forests, Woodlands, Watercourses and also frequently spotted in Sub-Urban Gardens. The small bird has a speckled yellow and red face with a small black crest on top. Their wings are black with white spots and have a broad black band of feathers around the neck.

For more bird images, you can visit our Birds Photographs page.

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 ”A Cape Teal taken at the Austin Robert’s Bird Sanctuary.” Photograph by Dick Whitlock

About Cape Teal Birds

The Cape Teal (Anas capensis) is a 44-46 cm long dabbling duck of open wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa. I have taken this image of the Cape Teal in the Bird Sanctuary Austin Roberts.

This Cape Teal Bird species is essentially non-migratory, although it moves opportunistically with the rains. Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is very pale and mainly grey, with a browner back and pink on the bill (young birds lack the pink). The Cape Teal can be easily distinguished from other ducks, and it is easy to identify it.

Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary

More Bird Species

For more bird species and images of birds you can visit the Bird Species Images Gallery on 3D Photographers.

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“Photograph of a Laughing Dove in my backyard, taken in Pretoria, South Africa” Photograph by Dick Whitlock

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“I have taken this Photograph of the Blacksmith Lapwing in Little Falls, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Blacksmith Lapwing or “Kiewiet Bird” is regularly seen in parks and fields in South Africa, and occurs commonly form Kenya to Tanzania and Southern and western Africa.” – Photograph by Gerald Fereira

Blacksmith Lapwings are very boldly patterned in black, grey and white, possibly warning colours to predators. It is one of five lapwing species (two African, one Asian and two Neotropical) that share the characteristics of a carpal (wing) spur, red eye and a bold pied plumage. The bare parts are black. Females average larger and heavier but the sexes are generally alike.

They are very protective of their eggs, and when there is eggs they will sweep down upon danger, to try and mislead the danger away from the eggs.

For more bird images you can visit our Birds Image pages and for other photographs by 3D Photographers you can visit our Main Image pages.

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An egret (pron.: /ˈiːɡrət/) is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which also contain other species named as herons rather than egrets.

The distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. The word “egret” comes from the French word “aigrette” that means both “silver heron” and “brush,” referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret’s back during the breeding season.

Egrets at dusk in Kolleru Lake, Andhra Pradesh, India

Several of the egrets have been reclassified from one genus to another in recent years: the Great Egret, for example, has been classified as a member of either Casmerodius, Egretta or Ardea.

In the 19th and early part of the 20th century, some of the world’s egret species were endangered by relentless plume hunting, since hat makers in Europe and the United States demanded large numbers of egret plumes, leading to breeding birds being killed in many places around the world.

Several Egretta species, including the Eastern Reef Egret, the Reddish Egret and the Western Reef Egret have two distinct colours, one of which is entirely white. Little Blue Heron has all-white juvenile plumage.

For more photographers of Bird Species you can visit our Bird Species Image Gallery.

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