Feathered Friends, Old World Flycatcher, Thrushes, Robins and Chats
Burnt orange chest, must be a robin lurking in the wooded area on walks or in the garden.
First up I was told by property owner we were visiting in the Southern Drakensberg this bird is a Cape Robin-chat, on closer inspection of photographs this bird lacks the white speculum separating blackish lores from crown, and is bigger.
My guess being a larger bird it is in fact the Chorister Robin-chat with fiery under-belly plumage, face with no white eyebrow, still not happy with identification.
This bird takes to the tree top early morning and late afternoons to serenade arrival of new day and letting everyone know when it is sun-downer time, but then so do many other species...
Well the tall and short of it all it is not a Robin, not all birds with orange flash colours are robins, a handy forum group of local bird watcher enthusiasts assure me this is an Olive Thrush.
The Olive Thrush (Turdus Olivaceus) obtains a height of approximately 24 cms, only has one partner for life and moves alone or the two together.
Red-capped Robin-chat we have seen in a couple of different locations, locally and on the North Coast holidaying in the iSimangaliso Wetlands region. When walking through thick vegetation quietly one will find them moving in the under-scrub.
Very shy little birds give you little to no time to focus properly, once they see you they are on the move.
Another sparrow sized little bird on the floor of the dune forests of iSimangalio Wetlands region, one and only time I have see one is the White-browed scrub-robin, sat long enough to get but one photograph.
Finally after scratching around my memory, and later later photographs all taken some time back here is the African Stonechat, a busy little fellow of around 13 cm (sparrow size).
African Stonechat move between the long grasses searching out food, mainly insects. This little bird was photographed at Oribi Gorge, down our South Coast when visiting a couple of years ago.
What makes this interesting is in identification, taking note of size, the Robin-chat is about the size of a Sparrow whereas the Thrush are larger. In song they may sound similar leaving one in a quandary. Robins are more closely related to flycatchers however we refer to them as robins.
While researching found all these birds are from Muscicapidae bird family, most were referred to as Old World Flycatcher, Thrushes, Robins, and Chats, found in specific regions in Africa, all photographs are from the KwaZulu-Natal Province where I live.
Please correct me if I am wrong in any identification, photographing and finding out more about our birds has become a hobby.
All photography is my own, any queries or requests please drop a comment below, have a wonderful day!
Thought for Today: "A restless grasshopper eventually ends up in a birds teeth." - African Proverb
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Definitely an Olive Thrush Lady Joan.
A lovely post that you have here.
This old Olive Thrush lady recently had a baby again and they live here in our garden.
Blessings!
beautiful!
Thank you my friend!
Thanks for confirming, was thrown off track with being told it was the cape robin. All the robin family I have seen are small to medium, these are a lot larger.
Baby needs some more feathers, skin head still LOL, have a great weekend.
Nope, there's a Cape Robin at the end of my post today Lady Joan.
That is the old Thrush mother and her head has always been bald. The male Thrush has a normal head of hair hahaha.
Blessings!
Oh my, too many wigs now gone bald, she does look strange without a cover of feathers, perhaps a deficiency in food supply when young.
I think her husband is keeping her head clean plucking feathers during mating time Lady Joan.
The Egyptian Goose does the same to Sally when they mate, as he grabs her on the back of her neck.
Difficult to be a woman in nature hahaha.
Blessings!
Appears to just be difficult to be a woman in South Africa.....
Agreed my friend and a sordid and sorry truth indeed!
Great post Joan, I'm always surprised how many colorful birds you have around 😁
All the Robins in Africa and in America look so different from our Robin, but all are very lovely 😊
The African Stonechat looks extremely cool too with the orange chest and the dark head 😀
Cheers and !BEER
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Long distant relations of the old world, I love their big round eyes, perhaps it is the burnt orange plumage that makes the eyes show up more.
Stonechat has definite markings, such a dark black head it would have been nice to be up a little closer, unfortunately when in wildlife parks most photography is out of an open car window, as was the case here.
Thanks for the !BEER we still have alcohol ban...
Appreciate the invest_vote and tip, hopefully one day when our banned products are lifted we will be able to buy a few.
Good morning Joan,
yes, the orange certainly adds to the image.
I have never been to such a park. We had one in Austria, but it was closed in 2007 I believe.
I think we have been talking about the alcohol ban before - toilet paper was rare here for a few days, but there was always enough alcohol 😁
Have a wonderful Sunday ☀️
Cheers and !BEER
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Never had any problems with toilet paper very few hit skid road panicking about it either.
We neither, but after quite a few people posted on farcebook that there won't be any toilet paper left in the shops and warehouses soon, everybody ran to the shops and emptied the shelves 😁
Cheers and !BEER
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Beautiful photograph of birds my friend. nice post.
Old World Flycatcher will be found in the Asian countries, love how birds have distant relatives @tussar11
Enjoyed these lovely feathered creatures, Rehived! 👍
Thanks for enjoying the post and comment, rehive really appreciated! Have an awesome Sunday @razeiv
African Stonechat shots are my fave here -- very touchy captures!
Photoshoot out of car window at some distance away, thanks so much for visiting and soon I will start looking at my fungi photo's to share. Have an amazing day @qwerrie
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What an interesting selection of beautiful birds! They have some similarities to our Robins. Your photos are wonderful. Thanks for posting to the #featheredfriends community
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Perhaps we will start another international post on birds found in same families around the world, always interesting to see whether bigger or smaller in size, variation in colours.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting Melinda.
Oh, that would be fun! I can attempt that!
When the Darter and Cormorant Birds started with many doing the same bird it triggered a ripple effect, it was fun learning where certain bird families reside.
Perhaps a bird family or similar type bird, becomes bird of the month.
Would you like to start that as a Feathered Friends challenge? I will pin your post at the top of the community each month. I think it is a great idea!
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Will chat with you directly in the channel, it could make an interesting variation.
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Beautiful little guys! They always fun to watch! 🤗
Olive Thrush I had a few days to enjoy the company, robin and chats are on the move, fleeting glimpses into their lives.
Thanks for visiting @trincowski
Didn't know you were a featured friends. The photographs of those birds are amazing how you captured the colors and their expressions as though they were posing for your shot.
Thanks for sharing.
Birds are fascinating to watch whether around the home or going out always something moving in the sky above or moving through thick bush, yes something I do enjoy.
Wishing you a wonderful day and new week ahead @justclickindiva thanks for visiting.
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Great post! Cute birds!
African Stonechat looks like our siberian stonechat :)
Many look so similar yet have distinct markings of their own to define who they are, it is amazing how similarity sometimes making it difficult to identify.
This is a very interesting characteristic that is repeated in several birds, nice photos! Regards!
I have been amazed at how many species of birds literally "marry for life".
Thanks for comment @astrolabio have a wonderful new week.
Lovely captures of the birds Joan. The Red-capped Robin-chat has beautiful blue feathers.
This is what the red-breasted robin looks like here. This is one from my lawn. There’s always a few walking the lawn all summer looking for worms.
Very handsome, love the eye markings to distinguish the looks, may be a bit taller than our little ones. Nice capture Jo.
Most welcome Joan @joanstewart. Robin is quite the handsome one. 😊
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Thanks for the wishes @arcange feels like yesterday to be honest, had a lot of fun meeting people here.
Another great selection of birds with great info and happy you got the real name of that Robin bird for me i only know names of the most common birds to many species out there...lol 😊
You definitely get to know the regulars, problem is we have common names and have to look up what their actual name is. So many look similar, yet not the same 🙃
It would be a real task trying to get all there correct names you would need to spent hours on google and then you may not get the right name.