louislee

In June and July, 2012, I went to Ghana, a Western African country to participate in an internship programme for a local NGO called Light for Children which aims at eradicating Child Sexual Abuse. We held workshops mainly in the morning, so I was left with nearly the whole afternoon for birding. During weekends we were free to travel around the country, this also increased chance of sightings different species. The suburb of Kumasi was where I resided. Its immediate adjacency to farmland and rural villages raised the chance of seeing occasional birds. I will introduce the birds species by species. As it seems that there is a daily ceiling on the amount of data to be uploaded to the online album, I will present the birds in a series of batches.

Common bulbul [Pycnonotus barbatus] (非洲鵯) should be the most common bird. It was the very first bird I ticked at the very first day of the arrival. It is a common species strolling from garden to garden in villages. I took this picture when we were dining at a restaurant. Taking pictures while drinking malta is indeed enjoyable. But we will never forget how long it took to have fried rice with chicken. After that meal, we tasted some sweets called tom-tom, a unique mint flavor. Barn Swallows [Hirundo rustica] (家燕) always fly in unpredictably irregular paths. Fortunately I lived in a three-storey block which allowed me capturing precious moments of their family lives. They like circulating around each building block to catch insects in flight.


Flickr 上 grey999hk 的 _MG_3665


Flickr 上 grey999hk 的 _MG_3666

Grey-headed Sparrow [Passer griseus]. (灰頭麻雀) is another abundant bird, sauntering between food stalls where leftovers are littered on the ground. This picture was taken in a rural village when a very nice domestic helper showed us around. Laughing Dove [Streptopelia senegalensis] (笑鴿) is one of the most common doves. Perhaps my trip coincided with their breeding period, display flights were always noticed. They would fly up to one to two meter above where they perched and then spread the tail feathers to land slowly.


Flickr 上 grey999hk 的 _MG_3740


Flickr 上 grey999hk 的 _MG_3529

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Pied Crow [Corvus albus] (非洲白頸鴉) is a dominant and intelligent species whose livelihood is heavily dependent on the presence of human settlements and the intensity of human activities. I once saw them picking up a plastic bag containing Banku, a local food, and scratching for the eatable remanence. Nearly common is the Bronze Mannikin [Spermestes cucullatus] (古銅色文鳥), they lurk in tall grass and scrubs in medium-sized flock seeking seeds.

Pied Crow



Bronze Mannikin


There are two colourful, but never rare birds. The first is Village Weaver [Ploceus cucullatus] (鄉村織布鳥), which was seen in large colonies. Males were always busy darting back and forth from the nest they build and banana trees and palm trees, where they extract nesting materials. My supervisor told me the nests they built prevented snake from sneaking in. Woodland Kingfisher [Halcyon senegalensis] (林地翡翠) is virtually everywhere. Even in very congested places like a traffic interchange called Kajetia, I managed to saw two fighting for their own territory. They prey on insects mainly like crickets.

Village Weaver



Woodland Kingfisher

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Like every part in the world, Rock Pigeon [Columba livia] (原鴿) has adapted to live closely with humans. They follow chickens in the village for food. Hooded Vulture [Necrosyrtes monachus] (冠兀鷲) always circle high above the sky or squat a slaughter house which we passed nearly every day in a local transport called tro-tro. Despite their apparent abundance, actually they are endangered according to IUCN. An interesting phenomenon happens

nearly every day, pied crows would congregate to drive the invading hooded vultures, possibly out of protecting offspring of the crows.

Hooded Vulture




Rock Dove



African Pied Wagtail [Motacilla aguimp] (非洲斑鶺鴒) is a black-and-white wagtail. Occurring in various habitats from coastal resort to village, its appearance often surprised me. It reminded me of the white wagtail in Hong Kong. However, the former one does not fear human like the latter does. Little Swift [Apus affinis] (小白腰雨燕) were sighted regularly every morning and evening. I like watching them on the roof, practicing using manual focus of my 400mm lens.

African Pied Wagtail



Little Swift

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When it came to weekends, the Bradt’s Ghana guide book became our bible for targeting the eye-catching tourist destinations. Forest reserves, is one of my, if not ours favourite places to go. Yellowbill [Ceuthmochares aereus] (黃嘴鵑), at the time of my trip, was quite a noisy bird in the forest. Its call is easily recognizable. But its secretive behavior and its plain black feather made it difficult to observe in dense woods. I had only taken a few photos in a hurry before I got onto a taxi. African Pied Hornbill [Tockus fasciatus] (斑尾彎嘴犀鳥), similarly, is another noisy bird. But due to their significantly larger size and unmistakable shape, observing it was relatively effortless.

Yellowbill


African Pied Hornbill


Other than the Laughing Dove mentioned above, there were two doves I have seen once only. Tambourine Dove [Turtur tympanistria] (白胸森鳩) was seen on a hill. Its English name is truly entertaining as I never figure out how to associate this innocent animal with a seemingly unrelated musical instrument. This shy bird was observed in pair. Another interesting dove is the African Green Pigeon [Treron calva] (非洲綠鳩), which, in my opinion, resembles a juicy guava. It is one of the most mysterious birds as its silence, coupled with leaf-like colour making it untraceable.

Tambourine Dove


African Green Pigeon

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During the internship, I went to a village school to teach ICT weekly. I always chose to alight one station before the one next to the school for some birding time along the swamp and nearbyfarmland. When a loud ook-ook-ook call is heard, a Senegal Coucal [Centropus senegalensis]. (塞內加爾鴉鵑) is probably hiding in some bush nearby. There are two morphs. While the creamy white underpart morph is more common, the black epomidis needs some luck to be seen. Moreover, I always suspect I have seen a Blue-headed Coucal, which can be confused easily on field.

Senegal Coucal




Black Morph



There were two kinds of birds I like very much. The first one is Pin-tailed Whydah [Vidua macroura] (針尾維達鳥). Its ribbon-like tail urged me to recall the elegance of Japanese Flycatcher. But the Whydah is much more common and this curious bird prefers open space rather than dense woods. The other bird is Western Plantain-eater [Crinifer piscator] (灰蕉鵑). Deep fried plantain is a staple in Ghana and I really like plantain, which is a beautiful food. The Western Plantain-eater is easily identified on field, but I was really confused at the first time since I have never seen such kind of special bird before. At the outset I had mixed it up with raptor, eventually the myth was solved.

Western Plaintain-eater




Pin-tailed Whydah