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Bird of the Year 2015

Perhaps the most challenging task for our tour leaders is to select their best bird from amongst the thousands of great specials that they have the opportunity to see on our array of tours each year. The rest of us however have the pleasure of reading the year’s highlights from our leaders as recorded in their own words.

Adam Riley

The African or Angola Pitta is the holy grail of the Southern African birder and definitely the “most-wanted” bird in our region. I personally hadn’t seen one for over 20 years and that was well before I was hauling around a camera! I had an opportunity to guide some local birders who were on a serious pitta-quest in early December so I didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity to try take a photo of this stunning bird. After charter flying into a remote camp in the wilderness of Mozambique’s Zambezi Delta, we began our search. It was really dry and after 2 days we had turned up no sign of the bird except for a deserted nest from last season. I was beginning to stress… Finally we heard a single call and after some dedicated tracking in the undergrowth everyone, except one of the group, managed to see this very secretive bird. I returned the next morning with my friend who had dipped and this time we obtained superb views of a pair and I managed to take a few photos. A great way to end my last birding adventure of the year!

African Pitta by Adam Riley

Clayton Burne

In comparison to last year, 2015 has been very quiet on the gross numbers and lifers’ front. Having curtailed my guiding activity with a move to the office in South Africa, I managed only a few new birds in Panama, Puerto Rico and Cuba earlier in the year. However, my time in South Africa has certainly not been short of birding. Almost every weekend has been spent roaming KwaZulu-Natal, hooking up with species I have not seen in over 15 years, while Megan’s recent introduction to birding has added considerable impetus to my quest to show her new lifers.

While I have rather enjoyed seeing many old friends, I did pay particular attention to finding the few species that had eluded me so many years ago. One bird in particular had given me quite the run-around – I lost track of the endless nights spent camping in obscure locations, the hours waiting and watching bat movements during the twilight hours and searching plantations for days on end – without luck.

The Bat Hawk was a fairly straight forward choice as my bird of the year, for there is nothing quite like finding your bogey bird after a 15 year wait – even better when you twitch said bird on your birthday!

Found in much of sub-Saharan Africa as well as Indo Malaysia, the Bat Hawk is hardly uncommon – it was just awfully good at avoiding me! Fortunately, Bat Hawks tend to favour a particular roost site, and once found, sightings can be almost guaranteed. With much thanks to the other guides at Rockjumper who gave me helping hand, I was finally able to twitch what had been a long time bogey bird!

Bat Hawk by Clayton Burne

David Hoddinott

The Orange Fruit Dove is found in Fiji. The male has to be one of the most intensly orange birds in the world; it’s truly spectacular! It’s a bird I’d been wanting to see for many years and was therefore particularly delighted to have wonderful views of a male calling on our Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu tour this year, a fantastic highlight!

Orange Fruit Dove by David Hoddinott

Mark Beevers

My special birds of 2015 were both unexpected rarities in Morocco. The first was a female Lesser Scaup that I found at Oued Massa whilst co-leading the High Atlas and Desert tour with Keith. Oued Massa is one of my favourite birding locations in Morocco and is renowned for its rarity track record. Only the sixth record for Morocco it was the second that I had found there having found the second record for Morocco (and mainland Africa) in 2010 whilst co-leading the same tour and less than a mile from the first sighting to boot, coincidence or what?!  The other species is Spanish Imperial Eagle, which I found in the Zaer region of Morocco on day 1 of a private tour. This tour was set up to search for specific target species for four top-level Africa listers and despite some fanciful group expectations this species hadn’t even featured in our wildest dreams. This is the fifth documented record for Morocco but for those on the trip, the way the identification was concluded will be remembered for a long time.

Lesser Scaup by Colin Valentine

Rob Williams

Having led two great tours in South America, to Northern Peru and the Colombia Mega (1004 species found!) there are a lot of great birds to cast my mind back over. In Colombia, the Hooded Antpitta was a long-awaited lifer for me, as well as the group. The experience of hearing it, tracking it as it moved fast through the understorey, high into the sub-canopy, and eventually getting amazing looks is highly memorable. However, I think my personal bird of the year the Long-whiskered Owlet which we enjoyed great views of on the northern Peru tour. Not a lifer, but always tricky to see well, and this year we had fantastic views of a very cooperative individual just after dusk. Having previously spent over a week looking for this bird, before its call was known and when it was even thought to possibly be flightless, it was nice to see it well and this was the best look I have ever had!

Long-whiskered Owlet by Rob Williams

Erik Forsyth

The bird of 2015 for me was without a doubt the Kagu, an endangered flightless bird of the moist forests of central New Caledonia. I had flown over New Caledonia regularly on my annual visit to Papua New Guinea where I lead tours and always said “next time I will go to New Caledonia and look for the Kagu” and this year I decided to do just that.

I arrived in New Caledonia, a former French Colony, in the afternoon, collected my rental car, and noticed that the steering wheel was on the left hand side and that I would have to learn to drive competently on the right side of the road. This all went fairly well and I negotiated the busy metropolitan outskirts of the capital, Noumea, without incident. Later that evening I arrived at the Blue River National Park, which was closed so I settled down for a night in the car. The following morning dawned sunny and clear and soon I was driving 15km through the park to meet up with Jean-Marc (a conservation guide) on the other side of a pontoon bridge. After chatting, we drove to a moist patch of woodland where Jean-Marc said that there was a resident pair of Kagu. It wasn’t long before a ghostly white shape drifted through the trees and appeared in front of us on the edge of the forest. Suddenly, I was face to face with a bird I had longed to see and watched in awe as this mythical bird stood motionless just a few meters away. A large, white bird with red bill and red legs living in tropical green forest! It was difficult to comprehend what species I was looking at, was it a rail, heron or a ground pigeon … all in all, a mysterious bird! Definitely the bird of 2015 for me.

Kagu by Erik Forsyth

Markus Lilje

We were getting towards the end of a fascinating trip in Loanga National Park in Gabon, with the usual highlights and frustrations of any tour in West and Central Africa. There had been no sign of the large flocks of the still relatively understudied African River Martins that would breed here over the next months. We had picked up many other great birds like White-crested Tiger Heron, Black-headed Bee-eater and White-bibbed Swallow that could all have made this list in their own right. After just having seen a fantastic male Sitatunga from our boat we leant into another river bend, only to see a small flock of African River Martin and Rosy Bee-eater low over the water ahead of us. We were able to get really close and had these strange birds drinking and splashing around us for a few fantastic minutes.

African River Martin by Markus Lilje

Greg de Klerk

My bird of year for 2015 is a species which had proved rather elusive in for me in South Africa.The Mangrove Kingfisher is found in Mangroves along the eastern coastline of South Africa during the winter non-breeding season only. In the Mangroves the Kingfisher feeds on a host of aquatic creatures including crabs, mudskippers and other fish. while also being partial to insects and small reptiles. This particular individual was a lifer for me and kept us entertained as it flew back and forth snaring Fiddler Crabs with apparent ease while providing many photo opportunities. A fitting individual for my bird of the year.

Mangrove Kingfisher by Greg de Klerk

Keith Valentine

The highlight tours for me this year included Ethiopia, Morocco and Ghana. All extremely varied and all providing some outstanding highlights. Choosing from the long list of quality birds was a difficult task however at the end of the day it had to be Nkulengu Rail. I first heard this species calling in Ghana back in 2006. I was fortunate to be able to return on many occasions to Ghana and countries like Cameroon where the species also occurs and managed to hear it on numerous occasions.  The species however continued to be a ghost for me and after 10 years of searching, I had almost resigned myself to the fact that this amazing rail was destined to always feature only on my heard list. This year I returned to Ghana and once again thoughts of Nkulengu Rail began to make their way into my head. As we got into the rainforest zone these thoughts began to roll around more and more frequently and by the time we got to Ankasa Forest on day 10 of the tour I was once again dreaming of this special bird. Our first early morning began as we had grown accustomed to, with an early pre-dawn breakfast, however, just as we sat down, we heard the call of Nkulengu Rail not too far away. A few people then went out to take a look and were quickly able to locate a pair of rails perched about 25 feet up in a large tree. The word quickly got back to camp and before long everyone was enjoying this mega. A fine way to end 2015!

Nkulengu Rail by David Hoddinott

Wayne Jones

I’ve been fortunate to have travelled to some fantastic places this year, and to have seen some truly amazing birds.  The one that really stands out, though – even if it might seem an obvious choice – is the (male) Satyr Tragopan, which I saw on our Bhutan I and II tours. It really is an unbelievably stunning animal, and one that I grew up admiring in beautifully illustrated bird books. To see one in the flesh, and to have the quality of the sightings that we did on both our Bhutan tours was special indeed.

Satyr Tragopan by Wayne Jones

Heinz Ortmann

In 2015 I led a number of tours across Southern Africa, Madagascar and Uganda. The trip to Uganda in particular stood out. Although there were many birds to choose from, my bird of the year was an obvious choice. The Shoebill is every bit as strange and bizarre as it looks. Confined to mostly papyrus swamps this large bird stands motionless as it searches for its usual prey, Lungfish, in shallow water. We were treated to fantastic close up views of this strange stork on our Uganda tours but the first bird I saw is the one that will always stick out as it allowed us to approach within a few metres from where it was standing and did not seem at all bothered by our presence.

Shoebill by Heinz Ortmann

Gareth Robbins

On the last few Eastern South Africa tours I have been fortunate enough to locate and observe this unique bird in the Sand Forests in and around the Hluhluwe area. Everyone on the tour, including myself, was intrigued by the loud trilling frog-like mechanical sound that is emitted by the African Broadbill during its display. I saw this bird in Angola this year too but for most of the clients on this particular Eastern South Africa tour, this had been one of the more sought-after birds and is one of the main highlights of the tour.

African Broadbil by Gareth Robbins

Cuan Rush

Birding with a guest whose world list is well over 7,000 species is somewhat daunting and challenging, mainly because lifers are few and far between for them. However, on tour to East Africa in May this year we birded the Usambara Mountain range, part of the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. During the trip my guest did very well on new birds for his list but one stood out above the rest (in terms of rarity), namely Long-billed Forest Warbler (also known as Long-billed Tailorbird). Not an exceptionally attractive species, it is however, a highly range restricted and critically endangered bird that occurs at low densities. In the East Usambaras we travelled to a site where it is known to occur and spent at least an hour searching and listening for the bird. Finally, we heard it call and after persisting for another 10 to 15 minutes we managed to track it down in a dense tangle at the forest edge. We were thrilled to find not only one bird but a family group of 4; 2 adults feeding 2 youngsters. Incredible! Following the group we had numerous, mostly brief, sightings of the birds as they foraged in the tangles and undergrowth. An amazing birding memory and great to know that the birds are still breeding successfully in the fragmented forest patches.

Long-billed Forest Warbler by Markus Lilje

Nelis Wolmarans

I photographed this Common Chaffinch at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, whilst leading a private bird photography tour for Rockjumper Birding Tours with good friend and phenomenal photographer, Owen Deutsch. We were focused on a Southern Double-collared Sunbird when this beautifully colored bird flew in and perched itself within a relatively close distance of us. As it was my first sighting of this small bird, I shot off a few images and afterwards identified it as the Common Chaffinch, an uncommon resident introduced by Cecil John Rhodes in about 1898 and although it is an introduced species, given the history, I considered it to be a very special sighting and more so given its seriously restricted home range, now only occurring in the pine forests around the Newlands-Constantia area.

Common Chaffinch by Nelis Wolmarans

Rich Lindie

Choosing my bird-of-the-year for 2015 seemed infinitely harder than in previous years – mot just because I saw well over 2000 species during those twelve months, but also because the list included the likes of Harpy Eagle, Dark-winged Trumpeter, Alta Floresta Antpitta and White-necked Rockfowl! The only way I could make it much easier was to choose a bird that I had snapped a good picture of. Whittling the list down to just a few hundred, I was immediately grabbed by one in particular, for a pretty special reason.

After a few years without a tour in South America, I landed in Brazil more excited than a kid on Christmas Eve and made my way directly to Intervales, a short drive south of São Paulo – not my top city of the year, just so you know. Arriving there, I immediately began my reintroduction to the bounty that is Neotropical birding, seeing a Red-and-white Crake shortly after. While not in a family restricted to the New World, it was one of the first birds I saw during that reintroduction and it felt like the bang to my start. On top of this, it was my first lifer in South America for quite some time and it also happens to be in one of the families at the top of my interest list.

Red-and-white Crake by Rich Lindie

Adam Walleyn

Melanesia is a favorite region of mine.  During a trip through the Solomon Islands this year we made a visit it to Tetepare – a long-awaited first visit for me.  The island holds a claim to being the largest uninhabited island in the tropical Pacific and there has been almost no hunting, fishing, or logging on the island in two decades.  Our visit did not disappoint: the island teemed with the most approachable birdlife I have ever encountered in the Solomons, and there was stunning lowland rainforest and amazing marine life.  I also knew that the island held the only recent records of the virtually unknown Solomons Nightjar – although I knew of no one who had actually seen the bird! Knowing that the chances of encountering a bird during a daylight visit would be close to nil, I still couldn’t help but ask a local guide if he knew anything of the bird.  To our great surprise, he replied that he had seen a roosting bird a couple weeks earlier, but that it was too far to walk there.  Fortunately we had a zodiac and after jumping in and cruising around to the back side of the island, we landed and assembled on shore.  A few meters away our jaws dropped one by one as we made out the outline of an incredibly-well-camouflaged roosting Solomons Nightjar.  The image included here is surely one of the only ever taken of the species!

Solomons Nightjar by Adrian Hayward

Glen Valentine

Very few birds are as mythical and little-known as the Golden Masked Owl, a gorgeous little Tyto owl that is endemic to the island of New Britain, which in turn is a small, under-explored island situated off the east coast of New Guinea.

This species was, until very recently, only known from a handful of specimens and sight records until its rediscovery a few months ago. With much excitement and anticipation we arrived in Hoskins to begin our first of several New Britain tours for the 2015 New Guinea season. As soon as we arrived at our lodge in Kimbe Bay we met with Joseph – the lodge’s local guide and the man responsible for rediscovering the species – and formulated a plan on how we were going to try and find this mythical species and on the second night we left the luxuries of our wonderful lodge and embarked on our Golden Masked Owl quest. We drove along the road where Joseph had seen the owl a few weeks prior to our visit and also scoured every other gravel track that bisected the general area but to no avail. A little disappointed but not in the least bit surprised we returned to the lodge empty-handed. On our third night we ventured out again but this time we’d literally just left the lodge and driven about two hundred meters along a gravel, oil-palm harvesting road when Joseph reminded us that this was the place where he and Shane – the lodge manager – had videoed the owl a few weeks earlier. Almost as soon as he finished his statement our lights met an object perched on a low stump at the edge of the road and right in the middle of a large oil palm plantation! We couldn’t believe it! Our hearts skipped a beat when we realized that it was indeed a Golden Masked Owl! We were almost too excited to even think. We couldn’t believe our luck and the fact that we were actually admiring this once impossible-to-see owl in the wild!

We decided to return the next night, our final night on the island and quite amazingly, there it was, sitting on a similar post in the same area as the previous night. We enjoyed further, excellent views before it took flight into the plantation. However, we managed to re-unite with it again on another nearby track and were treated to final saturation views of this beautiful and exceedingly rare species before we bid farewell to one of the rarest birds on earth. This was indeed a very special birding moment and one that we will all cherish forever!

Unfortunately we were unable to find the owl on our second and third New Britain tours so one has to wonder, when will Golden Masked Owl be seen again? Will it become an annual event or will it once again remain an unknown, unseen “phantom” for the next few decades…

Golden Masked Owl by Glen Valentine

Forrest Rowland

My touring year 2015 was spent entirely in the Western Hemisphere. Being unabashedly vocal about my love of all things Neotropic, this suited me fine. Despite there being relatively little left in the ‘Lifer’ column of my IOC checklist on this half of the planet, I always enjoy birding the tropical Americas. I take into account that this hemisphere represents well more than half the world’s birds, and there are still many wondrous nooks and crannies left to explore.

The opportunity to guide our inaugural tour through Bolivia was, by far, the most personally rewarding experience of this great year. New habitats, new microhabitats, new logistical challenges, and many new fantastic species of birds greeted me there. While Hooded Mountain-Toucan is a strong contender, being both quite rare, exceptionally attractive, and my 3000th species for the South American continent, another more diminutive ‘Hooded’ member of the avian world wins my Bird-of-the-Year honor – the tiny, endearing, inexplicably rare Hooded Antpitta.

As a Neotropic enthusiast, I’m enamoured with all things ‘Ant’-related. Antbirds, Antwrens, and Antpittas call to my inner masochist, given that most of these creatures inhabit the densest, darkest thickets and forests. The scarcest of these skulkers are only found in the most remote areas of an already hard-to-access continent. Hooded Antpitta is among the most enigmatic of these already mythical critters known as Antpittas. Online resources reporting the Life History of this particular species are starkly void of any information. Save for the anecdotal reference of one or two of the few observers who have seen this species, the information is mostly an educated guess referencing a well-studied relative, at best. There is little-to-no concrete information about this beautiful little bird which makes it all the more enticing to someone like me!

Having spent one or two months of my life in Colombia, each year, for the past 12 years, I have a vested interest in all things Colombian. Nothing is more Colombian than the special birds that occur there. Only a very few species remain, for me, in Colombia. Hooded Antpitta was one of only five or six new species I could see in the country, when we found ourselves staring at not one, but TWO individuals, right in the face, on December 15th of this year! To say I was beside myself is a complete understatement. After initial great looks at the pair, close, at eye-leve,l in relatively open vegetation (see the accompanying photo by tour participant Paul Ippolito to get an idea of the circumstance and proximity), I literally had to walk away for a few seconds to collect myself. This was more than just the bird experience of the year for me. It was, perhaps, the bird of the decade, to date!

Hooded Antpitta by Paul Ippolito

Top 10 Mid-Year Sightings by Rockjumper Tour Leaders

Our tours invariably turn up interesting and unexpected sightings, and here are the top 10 recent sightings from some of our tours that have run over the past few months as documented in our tour leader’s own words. This is obviously just a small selection, but should nevertheless give a good indication of some of the unusual species and experiences that make every Rockjumper tour special for our participants.

1. Golden Masked Owl by Glen Valentine in Papua New Guinea

Our first Papua New Guinea tour of the season was an immense success with loads of incredible birds, so many in fact that I saw 15 lifers and Adam Walleyn saw 6 (and we’re both veterans on numerous PNG tours)!!! However, nothing compares to the absolute highlight of our first New Britain Extension, which came in the form of seeing a GOLDEN MASKED OWL on two out of three nights!!! In fact, we were even able to capture the second ever known photographs of the species and our group became the first birding tour to see this mythical bird since the early 1980’s!”

2. Geomalia by David Erterius in Sulawesi, Indonesia

One of the absolute highlights of our recent Sulawesi & Halmahera – Wallacean Endemics tour was seeing a Geomalia (Geomalia heinrichi)! This very shy and elusive ground-dweller is endemic to Sulawesi and certainly one of the toughest birds to find on the island and is very rarely photographed!

The Geomalia (also known as Sulawesi Mountain-Thrush) inhabits primary montane forest with dense undergrowth and moss forest ranging from around 1,700 – 3,400 metres above sea level. For a very long time, it remained a taxonomic enigma (amongst others, it was thought to be a babbler of sorts), and it wasn’t until very recently that researchers conducted molecular studies on the bird which confirmed it to be a thrush. This individual was seen along the famous Anaso track in the bird-rich Lore Lindu National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

3. Satyr Tragopan by Wayne Jones in Bhutan

A grey, drizzly afternoon was brightened significantly on our Bhutan II tour in April. We’d been driving the middle Lingmethang Road searching for Satyr Tragopans when a plump, scarlet bagpipe of a bird was sighted at the next corner. We edged closer, careful not to scare off our quarry. We needn’t have worried! This magnificent bird pottered about the roadside, allowing us to climb out of the bus and ogle him. We ended up watching him for at least 15 minutes – he didn’t even budge when another vehicle came past. What a beaut!

4. Beautiful Sibia by Wayne Jones in Bhutan

We were walking through lush temperate forest near Morong in Bhutan when our local guide spotted an unusual-looking Sibia. Soon all attention was diverted to the bird whose subtle grey and rufous plumage revealed it to be a Beautiful Sibia. While not a rare bird within its range, it seems it might be one of only a handful of records for Bhutan. We enjoyed great views as the bird was pretty relaxed.

This photo was taken in the late morning at around 2,200 m.a.s.l. The bird was in view for a fabulous 15 minutes (!) but was quite wary and shy of any attempt to get closer, hence the relatively poor quality of the image.

5. Sunbittern by Keith Valentine in the Brazilian Pantanal

We were fortunate to have a few amazing sightings during a recent private tour into the depths of the Brazilian Pantanal. Naturally one of the main targets was finding the elusive Jaguar and with success on this front being almost instant it allowed us plenty of time to enjoy the Cuiaba River and its tributaries for some additional birding and wildlife viewing. One afternoon we spotted this fabulous Sunbittern on an exposed bank, which allowed for some phenomenal views. The bird was calling actively and strutting about seemingly oblivious to who was watching. We probably observed it for around 5 minutes before it popped up into the air and dropped out of sight behind some vegetation. A spectacular bird belonging to its own family Eurypygidae, while also sharing a unique order, Eurypygiformes with the extraordinary Kagu of New Caledonia.

6. Black-fronted Dotterel by David Erterius in Indonesia

During late August, we were birding the Megitimbe Wetlands, a great area for waterbirds not far from Waingapu on the island of Sumba. We recorded a good variety of species, including highlights such as a dozen Australian Pratincoles, a fabulous male Spotted Harrier, newly arrived Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers, Long-toed Stints, hundreds of Wandering Whistling Ducks, Pacific Black Ducks and Sunda Teals among others. Arriving at a roadside rice paddy, I had barely put up the scope before I spotted a stunning Black-fronted Dotterel! I later found out that this species has been found a couple of weeks earlier a few kilometres away. As far as I am aware, these constitute the first ever record of the species for Indonesia. The normal range of Black-fronted Dotterel is Australia and New Zealand.

7. Hylocitrea by David Erterius in Sulawesi & Halmahera, Indonesia

One of the highlights of our Sulawesi & Halmahera – Wallacean Endemics tour was undoubtedly our multiple sightings of Hylocitrea. Endemic to Sulawesi, this species is placed in its own family and high up on many birders wish list. Our first sightings were along the famous Anaso Track of Lore Lindu NP, near the summit of Mount Rorekatimbu. Here, the entire group enjoyed one bird sitting just a few metres away, allowing for perfect open unobstructed view for a couple of minutes, followed by another sighting in a nearby fruiting tree, where at least three birds were feasting on berries. A few days later, as we were about to locate the rare and localized Matinan Flycatcher up on Mount Ambang, again not only one but two Hylocitreas appeared in front of us, and this was the occasion where the shot shown here was taken.

8. Dulit Frogmouth by Erik Forsyth in Borneo (photo by Ch’ien C. Lee)

The highlight of our inaugural Borneo – Black Oriole & Dulit Frogmouth Extension was finding this very rare bird within only a short while of arriving at the spot where it had recently been seen. Here’s the story: After dinner we got together for a planned night search for the Dulit Frogmouth, a rare and little-known species recently discovered in this area. We drove the short distance to the site and within a few minutes … our local guide’s quick spotting found the bird perched in a gully below us, offering fabulous looks. A short while later the bird flew off but was again relocated and scoped, so that we could enjoy even better views – fantastic!!!

9. Orange Fruit Dove by David Hoddinott in Taveuni, South West Pacific Islands

Undoubtedly one of the main highlights of our recently-concluded South West Pacific Islands – Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu & New Caledonia tour, and this fabulous species showed extremely well on Taveuni. A real jewel and surely one of our planet’s most colourful birds!!

10. Siberian Crane by Glen Valentine in Taiwan

During a recent tour of Taiwan we were extremely fortunate to have heard about the first-ever record of Siberian Crane for the island. The individual, which was still slightly immature, was first found in December 2014 and, quite incredibly, in June this year was still milling around the same small wetland at which it had originally been discovered. Luck was on our side as we found ourselves close to the site at the beginning of our tour and so a mini twitch of this rare species ensued. We found the bird in question immediately after arriving at the site as it stood out head and shoulders above the egret species also in attendance. We watched and photographed it at close range for an extended period, a very lucky encounter indeed!

The Siberian Crane, Siberian White Crane or Snow Crane as it is sometimes known, is one of the rarest crane species and is currently listed as Critically Endangered. The western population of the species is on the verge of extinction with around a mere 10 individuals hanging on, while the eastern population that breeds in the Arctic tundra of eastern Russia has an estimated population of around 3000 birds, of which around 95% of the population winters in the Poyang Lake basin in China. However, the risk of losing the last remaining population of these beautiful and stately birds is of major concern due to the planned building of the Three Gorges Dam, which will flood the valley and the crane’s wintering habitat.

We were extremely fortunate to have seen this rarity in the wild, a species that is declining every year and on the brink of extinction.

The Amur Migration by David Erterius

Current technology limits the non-stop flight time of a commercial aircraft to 17½ hours. However, in the avian world, there’s a flight that’s even longer – one that’s just recently started to be monitored by conservationists. Namely the very impressive long distance migration of Amur Falcons as they fly continuously from remote Northeastern India to the Horn of Africa every year! Researchers have collected very interesting data on these remarkable flights by attaching small 5g devices, so-called Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTT) on these small raptors. A male Amur Falcon named ”Naga”, weighing just 179g, flew from Nagaland in India to Somalia in eastern Africa, crossing the entire Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Sea, for five days and 10 hours non-stop and covering a distance of some 5600km!

Have a look at this map showing some tracked flyways, and see what an astounding achievement this is:

http://www.livemint.com/r/LiveMint/Period1/2014/10/21/Photos/g-Falcon_web.jpg

The Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) is a trans-equatorial long-distance migrant that moves from its breeding grounds in Mongolia, the south Russian Far East, northeast China and North Korea all the way to its wintering grounds in southern Africa, and back every year! These small falcons leave their Asian breeding range and fly to parts of remote northeast India (i.e. the state of Nagaland) and Bangladesh, where thousands of birds congregate in certain staging areas before they depart for a long overland flight across the Indian Subcontinent. Subsequently, they undertake the longest regular overwater migration of any bird of prey, crossing over the Indian Ocean between western India and tropical east Africa, a journey of more than 4000km! Adapted to the strong monsoon tailwinds, the first migrants start to arrive in their southern African winter range by the end of November. 

I spent the last few days of September and the first week of October this year on Happy Island which is situated on the coast of Heibei province in China. For some time now, this small island has been known as a first-rate spot to watch migrant birds on stopover and passage, and good numbers of Amur Falcons are known to pass through every year. I experienced an unusually strong passage of Amur Falcons during my stay on the island, and here’s my story about the event in detail:

My first two full birding days on Happy Island saw overcast and windy wheather with thick, low clouds and light to moderate rain most of the time. It soon turned out that this wheather had caused a major fall of migrant passerines, and loads of warblers, pipits and buntings were virtually everywhere on the island. On 30th September, the wind dropped, it cleared a little and visibility improved. At the same time, the first migrant Amur Falcons started to appear and at the end of the day, I could add 86 birds to the protocol. The next day, the wheather had changed quite dramatically, with clear blue skies and a fresh northerly wind and even more falcons showed up. This day and over the next five days I noted a total of 1701 Amur Falcons, which meant that an incredible 1787 individuals were seen on passage between 30th September and 6th of October! Truly amazing! One of these days stood out as the Big Day when, by just late morning, a total of 1044 birds had passed over in just a few hours! O the same day, the migration peaked during the last 30 minutes before noon with an average of around 7 birds per minute and flocks of up to 75 birds! The wheather on this day was very hazy with reduced visibility, and the wind was southwesterly (which meant head-wind), and these two factors probably funneled the falcons to Happy Island.

Please have look at this selection of shots, taken by myself on these days:

Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), adult male looking at the photographer.
Compared to its western cousin, the Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus),
the adult male Amur Falcon has a very different underwing pattern
with striking whitish wing coverts, as can bee seen here.

Amur Falcon, adult female.
Very different to the adult male and more similar to a juvenile.

Amur Falcon, juvenile. The underwing pattern is very similar to the
adult female but note the streaked rather than spotted body and the
overall paler and buffier appearance.

Amur Falcon, juvenile. A well determined bird flying low across
Happy Island and aiming for its winter quarters somewhere in Southern Africa.

Amur Falcon, female. Blistering sand and strong head-wind is nothing for
these powerful fliers

Amur Falcon, adult male.

Amur Falcon, adult female.

Amur Falcon, juvenile.

Further reading on the migration of the Amur Falcons on these links:

http://www.livemint.com/Specials/3GIhpiMO8OoA42v8SJhSVL/Tracking-the-flight-of-the-Amur-falcon.html

http://www.conservationindia.org/articles/tracking-the-incredible-journey-of-the-amur-falcon

"Mythical" Bird Spotted on Rockjumper Tour by Glen Valentine

Very few birds are as mythical and little-known as the Golden Masked Owl, a gorgeous and diminutive Tyto owl that is endemic to the island of New Britain, which in turn is a small, under-explored island situated off the east coast of New Guinea. 

This species was, until very recently, known only from two specimens and a single sight record. However, something very exciting materialized in the weeks leading up to our 2015 New Britain tours. While guiding a group of Japanese tourists around the island, the local guide Joseph, who is based at Walindi Resort on the east coast of the island, was driving his clients around looking at fireflies in the adjacent oil palm plantations when a small, golden-coloured owl appeared in his flash-light. He immediately knew what the owl was as he had found a dead specimen of the species in the lodge grounds only two years ago. Absolutely blown away by the discovery, he drove back to the lodge and reported it to Shane, the lodge manager, and the two headed out to the same area the next evening, armed with a video camera. Quite incredibly, they found the bird in the same vicinity and managed to obtain some excellent video footage of this mega-rarity. Finally, the unknown Golden Masked Owl was on the map! 

With much excitement and anticipation, we arrived at the lodge to begin our inaugural New Britain tour of the 2015 New Guinea season. We chatted to Joseph on the first evening and formulated a plan on how we were going to try and find this mythical species, and on the second night we left the luxuries of our wonderful lodge and embarked on our Golden Masked Owl quest. We drove along the road where Joseph and Shane had seen the owl and also scoured every other road in the general area, but to no avail. A little disappointed but not in the least bit surprised, we returned to the lodge empty-handed. On our third night we ventured out again, but this time we’d literally just left the lodge and driven about two hundred meters along a gravel, oil palm harvesting road when Joseph reminded us that this was the place where he and Shane had videoed the owl just a few weeks ago. Almost as soon as he finished his statement, our lights met an object perched on a low stump at the edge of the road, right in the middle of a large oil palm plantation! We couldn’t believe it! Our hearts skipped a beat when we realized that it was indeed a Golden Masked Owl! We were almost too excited to even think. I had a quick look and reached for my camera to at least try and squeeze off some kind of a record shot. I managed to fire off a few poor shots, but we were able to edge closer and closer until we were eventually fairly close. The owl obliged and everyone obtained even better views, and I managed to obtain a few decent images such as the one used for this post. On an all-time high we returned to the lodge, absolutely delighted by this extremely fortunate encounter!

On our final night on the island we decided to have one last try, and quite amazingly, there it was, sitting on a similar post in the same area as the previous night. We enjoyed further excellent views before it took flight into the nearby plantation. A quick look however on another nearby track saw us re-uniting with the bird again and we were treated to final saturation views of this beautiful and exceedingly rare species. We then bid farewell to one of the rarest birds on earth, knowing that this was indeed a very special birding moment and one that we will all cherish forever! 

(Unfortunately, we were unable to find the owl on our second and third New Britain tours, so one has to wonder: when will the Golden Masked Owl be seen again? Will it become an annual event, or will it remain an unknown, unseen “phantom” for the next few decades? Only time will tell…)    

Top Birding destinations in Africa by David Hoddinott

I have often been asked, if you were to choose only four countries to travel to in Africa what would they be? Not an easy question to answer; however, it helps when breaking the continent down into regions.

In North Africa Morocco is the obvious choice. It has the highest diversity of species in the area including three North African endemics – Levaillant’s Woodpecker, Moussier’s Redstart and Tristram’s Warbler – and other highly-prized species such as the Northern Bald Ibis (one of the world’s rarest birds). What’s more, the country is friendly and peaceful, is rich with interesting history and culture, has good roads, good accommodations, great food and a diverse array of habitats, ranging from the snow-capped Atlas Mountains to the start yet scenically spectacular Sahara Desert.

Northern Bald Ibis by David Hoddinott 

In East Africa, Uganda is hard to beat: with over 1,000 bird species, including the unique Shoebill and numerous localised Albertine Rift endemics, it is simply unrivalled for its size. Not that birds are the only feature, since Uganda is also blessed with magnificent mammals including Mountain Gorilla, Chimpanzee and a host of other primates, tree climbing Lions and a wonderful selection of other big game, friendly English-speaking people, a good road network, good accommodations and food, superb national parks, two wonderful boat trip options on the Kazinga Channel and the Nile River, plus a lovely climate – all of which ensures a very rewarding and enjoyable birding and wildlife holiday experience!

Shoebill by David Hoddinott

In Southern Africa the obvious destination is South Africa. The reasons for choosing South Africa are that it has the most endemic species for any country on the continent, a wonderful selection of over 800 beautiful and charismatic species such as turacos, mousebirds, sunbirds, rollers, hornbills and barbets (to mention just a few), most of which are also easy to see and fairly confiding, some of the best pelagic birding in the world, a great diversity of impressive mammals, a splendid range of habitats, interesting history and culture, a world-class tourism infrastructure with excellent accommodations to suit all budgets, great food and wines, friendly English-speaking people and roads which are generally in good repair.

Bush Blackcap by David Hoddinott

In West Africa, Ghana leads the way as it’s one of the friendliest countries on the continent, is also English speaking, has generally good accommodations and food (well, certainly for West and Central African standards in any case), a wonderful diversity of birdlife (a comprehensive 23-day trip such as our Ghana Mega tour can net you +-500 species of birds, including White-necked Rockfowl and some of the rarest birds on the continent), a splendid canopy walkway, some wonderful national parks and good roads to boot. 

White-necked Rockfowl by David Hoddinott

About David: 

David Hoddinott has extensive experience leading birding tours throughout Africa, Asia and Madagascar. He is well known in birding circles for his endless energy and legendary bird spotting skills. His zeal for bird guiding has earned him the position as senior leader at Rockjumper and a reputation as one of the world’s most talented birders.

David Hoddinott is a member of his local branch of BirdLife and sits on the KwaZulu-Natal and South African rarities panels. He has worked as the resident ornithologist at birding lodges in South Africa, Botswana and Ecuador, including an 18-month stint at the world-famous Sacha Lodge, and is now a full time guide for Rockjumper Birding Tours. In February 2010 David reached 2,000 birds in Africa, which emphasizes his experience, passion and skill in this great continent! He continues to lead tours to all the major birding destinations in Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Morocco and Tunisia, and seldom visited areas such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Djibouti and Socotra. He aspires to travel to extraordinary places and invites all those intrepid travellers with a sense for adventure to join him on his exciting adventures!

2016 ABA Safari to Northern India

Perhaps the world’s richest cultural landscape, India boasts a staggering geographical diversity, from deserts and forests to tropical, palm-lined shores to the snow-capped peaks of the impossibly high Himalayas. This ABA Safari starts and ends in the capital of New Delhi, an excellent hub for the rich avifauna and iconic mammalian mega-fauna of northern India. Our safari explores two of the most famous birding and wildlife national parks in northern India: the royal wildfowl sanctuary of Keoladeo National Park at Bharatpur, with its spectacular wetlands; and fabled Ranthambhore National Park, a reserve widely known as one of the best places to see the Bengal Tiger, and also a spectacular birding destination. We invite you to join us for this unforgettable celebration of India’s incredible birds, iconic mammals, dramatic scenery, rich history and kaleidoscope of cultures!

—George Armistead, ABA Events Coordinator

Click here to read this article from the American Birding Association submitted by Adam Riley.