On our last morning at the preserve, I got up at sunrise again to go see who I could find. One simple technique I have often used to spot birds is to look for big dark spots in trees, but that had been oddly unfruitful for me on this trip, until the last morning. This first large dark spot, at the very top of a tree across the small valley that the stream had carved, is a broad-billed roller aka cinnamon roller (Eurystomus glaucurus).
I read that they “are known as rollers because of the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights. Rollers resemble crows in size and build and share the colorful appearance of kingfishers and bee-eaters.”
Even better than one dark spot that finally turned out to be a bird, another dark spot soon arrived, and this one turned out to be a ring-necked dove aka Cape turtle dove or half-collared dove (Streptopelia capicola),
As time for breakfast approached and I headed back toward the lodge, I spotted this white-breasted cuckooshrike (Ceblepyris pectoralis). Despite the name, I read that “cuckooshrikes are not closely related to either the cuckoos or to the shrikes.” Instead, “the name probably comes from the grey color of many of the cuckooshrikes.”
Right after the cuckooshrike, another bird swooped in, and this one is a black-headed oriole (Oriolus larvatus). Man, I was on a roll. That’s four new birds in about 90 minutes. Sweet!
Finally, as I approached the lodge, where Anne was already enjoying her cup of tea, I spotted this stunner, an amethyst sunbird, aka black sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystina). I had actually glimpsed one two days before, but the pictures were just too rough to publish. The picture below is still not quite what I would call a portrait, but you can at least make out a little violet patch on its shoulder.
And that finally wraps up the birds of Malawi, but wait, there were other creatures to see as well. One morning as we set out on our hike after breakfast, a troop of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) came through. At first, the scouts were very shy, but when the boss showed up and took a seat on the ground to calmly munch on fallen fruit, …
several others soon joined him.
Meanwhile, another common ground dweller was the common agama, red-headed rock agama or rainbow agama (Agama agama). Here’s a “dominant male” with his bright orange head and wonderfully-contrasting bright blue body, …
and here’s a “female, adolescent, or subordinate male” in far better camouflage.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 