Yellow-billed Hornbill nest in Electricity Pole

During an atlasing outing in May I witnessed an Yellow-billed Hornbill flying with a worm in its beak. It flew straight to an electricity pole where I found a nest. A week later I returned to the nest and took some videos of the male feeding its chicks.

The nest was about 5 m from the ground with the entrance on the northern side of the pole.

I was unfortunately not able to see how many chicks were in the nest. At one point in the video I could see two bills – the one had to be the female and the other of the chick – but there might have been more chicks.

I cannot find anywhere in the literature a reference to Yellow-billed Hornbill making a nest in a man-made structure - only nesting logs. So this seems to be very unique.

This record in May is also a very late breeding record. According to the literature September to March is normal.

It was also interestingto note that the nest was next to a gravel road used by cars and above a pedestrian road which is used by hundreds of school children during the week. While trying to video the nest I had to wait for more than an hour for all the children to pass on their way to school. During this period the male waited patiently with a berry in its beak and just after 08:00, with all the children now at school, it flew straight to the nest to provide his family with the food they need!

Atlassing Pentad: 2530_2820

Myself and Michael Groenewald atlased Pentad: 2530_2820 (NW of Roodeplaatdam) on Sunday 25 May. As it is winter we did not expect to many species in this pentad but was pleasantly surprised when we saw 70 species after about 5 hours of birding. In summer I had 91 species once - so the numbers are down a lot from summer.

Out first special sighting of the morning was of a Giant Kingfisher. I am always amazed by their massive bill and general size in comparison to other Kingfishers.

A few minutes after this we had wonderful views of White-backed Mousebird. In our part of the world this is not a common species and a new bird for this particular pentad. The highlight of the day was the fantastic views we had of Yellow-bellied Eremomela. I last saw this species in the 100km radius from Pretoria in 2000 at Dikhololo near Brits and it is certainly not common in our area. A number of other birders indicated that they have not seen this species during the last few years in our area.

Another interesting sighting was 4 Greater-striped Swallows. I thought these intra-Africa migrant must by this time have left our country for warmer areas more to the north - but after a little bit of reading realised that they do remain in South-Africa for about a month longer than Lesser-striped Swallow. But even so this is rather late.

Some of the other species seen were: Black Crake, African Black Duck, Fiscal Flycatcher, Green-winged Pytilia Pearl-breated Swallow, Scaly-feathered Finch, Black-throated Canary, Violet-eared Waxbill, Violet-eared Waxbill, Sabota Lark, Green Wood-Hoopoe, White-throated Robin-Chat, Streaky-headed Seedeater, Karoo Thrush (not common in the more rural areas) Purple Indigobird, Little Swift and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

A wonderful day of birding!

My favourite books

Chaimberlains Guide to Birding Gauteng (E Marais & Faansie Peacock)

This book, published in 2008, is a must for birders in or regular visitors to the greater Gauteng area. In the book (384 pages) more than 100 birding sites in the greater Gauteng area are discussed with tons of details about possible birds to be seen, habitats, directions, contact details etc. Also included are easy to follow maps and really nice photographs. I know both authors personally and this book is the result of many hours in the field collecting the information needed to write this guide. So if in the past you had to phone and email your birding pals to find the best route to some of the best birding sites in Gauteng - no need to do so anymore - just buy this book. There is also a website linked to the book: http://www.gautengbirding.co.za/

Roberts Birds of Southern Africa VII (PAR Hockey, WRJ Dean & PG Ryan)

The bible of birding for years. Roberts VII is a total "upgrade" from previous versions. It is now a birding reference work and not a field guide. Detailed descriptions of each species will most probably answer all your birding related questions that you might have.

Newman's Birds of Southern Africa (Kenneth Newman)

This is an old favorite of many birders. Kenneth Newman has through his books introduced a lot of birders to this fantastic hobby. The biggest asset of this book is the quality of the sketches.

The Larger Illustrated Guide to Birds of Southern Africa (Ian Sinclair & Phil Hockey)

This is the newest version of this series and was published in 2005. It contains all the newest species splits and new names. A wonderful book and most probably the most up-to-date field guide.

Roberts Bird Guide - (Guy Upfold & Hugh Chittenden)

The field guide version of the Roberts VII handbook. The distribution maps are fantastic and the text perfect. Just a shame that some of the sketches are not that great. But even so a must for all birders.

Pipits of Southern Africa (Faansie Peacock)

I cannot describe the purpose of this book better than the author himself - "The main objective of this book is to present an up-to-date identification manual to distinguish between the sixteen defferent specie of pipits that occur in Southern Africa. Essientially this book is a coalition between personal field experience and field notes, comments by other observers and a review and critical analysis of all available reference material pertaining to southern African pipits". A wonderful book with tons of information about this mysterious group of birds!! For more information visit http://www.pipits.co.za/.

Raptor Identification guide for Southern Africa (Ulrich Oberprieler and Burger Cillië)

Raptors can be extremely difficult to identify. This book will guide you through all the pitfalls in identifying this group of birds. You will find the general description of the different groups especially helpful. The book also contains beautiful photographs which greatly augment the text about each species. Also available in Afrikaans.

The Bird Guide of Southern Africa (Ulrich Oberprieler & Burger Cillie)

I must admit I am not a great fan of photographic field guides. But even so this must be the best of those available. Really great photos and tons of information. Please note that seabirds and the really rare and vagrant species are not included.

A guide to the Nest and Eggs of Southern African Birds (Warwick Tarbotan)

Another raptor guide not only covering the raptors of Southern Africa but also the rest of Africa and its Islands. The text is very well written and the images and sketches are great. As an added bonus you will also learn about the birds of prey in the rest of Africa.

Ornithology for Africa(Gordon Lindsay Maclean)

Although this book was written as a text book for Ornithology students, it is not too technical and the chapters on Food and Feeding, Migration and Navigation, Bird behaviour and Breeding biology are extremely interesting and will provide you with a fresh insight into the wonderful and varied world of birds.

Birds the inside story (Rael and Helene Loon)

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It covers a range of topics about birds and their behaviour with tons of interesting facts. It is written in an easy style with tons of photos.


Southern African Birdfinder (Callan Cohen, Claire Spottiswood and Jonathan Rossouw)

On the cover the following is printed - "Where to find 1400 bird species in southern Africa and Madagascar". So if you want to know where you can find that rare bird - this is the book you need!