Birders love to find rare birds; few things match the excitement
of coming across something completely unexpected.
But the obsession with rarities can result in population
changes in more common birds being overlooked. Breeding
bird surveys in Europe, Asia and North America show
that many bird populations are in flux, but what do we
know about the status of common birds in South Africa?
African Fish Eagle|African Spoonbill|Great Egret|Hamerkop|Malcolm Sutton|Marabou|Saddle-billed Stork|Yellow-billed stork
“Burchell’s Coucal”|African Grey hornbill|correspondence|Dave Ellinger|Doug Charlton|Egyptian Goose|Gwenola Le Garrec-Cooper Irene|Hamerkop|Laughing Dove|letters|Maggie Mendelsohn|Woolly-necked Stork
In northern Botswana, the term fish trap is used to describe a section of the Okavango
River (or one of the many channels that flow from it and make up the delta) that becomes
separated from the permanent channel supplying it with water. When this happens, fish
can’t escape and become concentrated in shrinking channels and lagoons. As a result, a
glut of easy pickings attracts large feeding parties of different bird species.