Saturday, 24 December 2022
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Friday, 23 December 2022
23-12-2022 BRUFUT FOREST, GAMBIA - BLACK BILLED WOOD DOVE (Turtur abyssinicus)
The black-billed wood dove (Turtur abyssinicus) is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across Africa just south of the Sahara Desert.
This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and savannah. It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an acacia, and lays two cream-colored eggs. Its flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general, and it tends to stay quite low.
Black-billed wood dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have dark metallic patches. There are two blackish bands on the back. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to whitish on the face. The underparts are pinkish, becoming whiter on the belly.
The bill of this dove is, of course, black. When flying, black-billed wood dove shows chestnut in the underwing. The call is a persistent fluted coo-coo-cu-coo. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, scaly below, and lack the wing spots.
Black-billed wood doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground.
They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes.
23-12-2022 BRUFUT FOREST, GAMBIA - ABYSSINIAN ROLLER (Coracias abyssinicus)
The Abyssinian roller is a large bird, nearly the size of a jackdaw at 28–30 cm (11–12 in). It has a warm brown back, with the rest of the plumage mainly blue. Adults have 12 cm (4.7 in) long tail streamers. Sexes are similar, but the juvenile is a drabber version of the adult. Abyssinian roller is striking in its strong direct flight, with the brilliant blues of the wings contrasting with the brown back and the long tail streamers trailing behind. The call of the Abyssinian roller is a harsh crow-like gak sound, or a screeched aaaargh.
The Abyssinian roller is native to tropical Africa. Its range extends from southern Mauritania and Senegal in the west and to Ethiopia, Somalia and northern Kenya in the east. It also occurs in south-western Saudi Arabia and western Yemen. This is a common bird of warm open country with some trees, and has adapted to farmland and human habitation.
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23-12-2022 BRUFUT FOREST, GAMBIA - AFRICAN HARRIER HAWK (Polyboroides typus)
The African harrier-hawk, harrier hawk or gymnogene (Polyboroides typus) is a bird of prey. It is about 60–66 centimetres (24–26 in) in length. It breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The only other member of the genus is the allopatric Madagascar harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus).
23-12-2022 BRUFUT FOREST, GAMBIA - AFRICAN BLACK WINGED KITE (Elanus caeruleus ssp. caeruleus)
The black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus), also known as the black-shouldered kite (not to be confused with the closely-related Australian species of the same name), is a small diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae best known for its habit of hovering over open grasslands in the manner of the much smaller kestrels. This Palearctic and Afrotropical species was sometimes combined with the Australian black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris) and the white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus) of North and South America which together form a superspecies. This kite is distinctive, with long wings; white, grey and black plumage; and owl-like forward-facing eyes with red irises. The owl-like behaviour is even more pronounced in the letter-winged kite (Elanus scriptus), a nocturnal relative in Australia. Although mainly seen on plains, they are sometimes seen on grassy slopes of hills in the higher elevation regions of Asia. They are not migratory, but show nomadism in response to weather and food availability. They are well adapted to utilize periodic upsurges in rodent populations and can raise multiple broods in a single year unlike most birds of prey. Populations in southern Europe have grown in response to human activities, particularly agriculture and livestock rearing.
The black-winged kite is a species primarily of open land and semi-deserts in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical Asia, but it has a foothold within Europe in Spain and Portugal. The species range appears to be expanding in southern Europe and possibly in West Asia. The first records of breeding in Europe were in the 1860s and since then they have become more widespread and populations are on the rise. It is thought that land-use changes, particularly agriculture and pastureland have helped the species.The species has expanded its range in southern Europe.
Several geographic populations have been named as subspecies and these include the nominate subspecies which occurs in Spain, Africa and Arabia. The subspecies vociferus is found east of this range across South Asia and into Southeast Asia. Along Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines subspecies hypoleucus (sometimes considered a full species) includes the population wahgiensis described from New Guinea. Subspecies sumatranus is not always recognized. The white-tailed kite and the black-shouldered kite were formerly included with this species but have since been treated as separate species.
Although found mainly on the plains they have been seen at higher altitudes in Sikkim (3,650 m (11,980 ft)), the Nilgiris (Doddabetta, 2,670 m (8,760 ft))[23] and Nagaland (2,020 m (6,630 ft)).
They are said to be winter visitors in some parts of their range such as the Western Ghats.
Thursday, 22 December 2022
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