#green-backed honeybird

[birdstudies]

December 9, 2024 - Green-backed Honeybird (Prodotiscus zambesiae) Found in parts of eastern and southern Africa, as far north as Ethiopia and South as Mozambique, these honeyguides live in forests, often near streams, savannas, and gardens. They eat insects, including beetles, scale insects, and termites, as well as spiders and some fruit and seeds, often foraging in mixed-species flocks. Females lay their eggs in the nests of several species of white-eyes, flycatchers, and other birds.

[witchstone]

took myself off impromptu to one of the local nature reserves on thursday (despite it probably not being a good idea since the rolling black outs often mean no cell phone signal which means. no way of getting home) and w o w did i see a lot

TWO different kinds of duiker, which i haven't seen there in years thanks to local dogs killing them (common grey duiker and a group of blue duiker who hadn't heard that they're supposed to be shy), brown-backed honeybird (!), tambourine dove, sombre + yellow-bellied greenbul (!), palmnut vulture flying overhead (!), southern tchagra (!), cape + chinspot batis, black saw-wing (!), golden-tailed woodpecker, african paradise + african dusky + southern black flycatcher, terrestrial brownbul, green-backed camaroptera, tawny-flanked prinia, red-capped robin-chat, white-browed scrub-robin (!), amethyst + collared sunbird, neddicky, grey waxbill (!), golden-breasted bunting (!), yellow-throated longclaw (!), red-backed mannikin, yellow-fronted canary and the usuals (speckled mousebird, purple-crested turaco, red-eyed dove, fork-tailed drongo, bulbul etc etc). also heard bar-throated apalis, olive sunbird, black-collared barbet, golden-rumped tinkerbarbet, crowned eagle and black-headed oriole.

no new ticks, but two confirmed ticks of the black saw-wings (flitting about on the forests edge) and finally a confirmed visual of the yellow-bellied greenbul. very excited to see the palmnut vulture. grey waxbill was nice too, since i've only seen it once before, and the brown-backed honeybird was only my third sighting. didn't get any photos, i ran out of memory before i'd even left the forest area lol. overall 46 species including calls, which isn't bad for two hours in the afternoon