Travels in Namibia - The Birds
It’s about the Birds
Not everybody is keen on birds and birding, but we had great birding experiences in Namibia and the Caprivi.
It is helpful to consider why birds are so important. Observing the birds, especially in Namibia, it was obvious how sensitive birds are to their environment. That might be stating the obvious, but it is uncanny how specific birds are found only in specific locations and specific habitats and at certain times. The changing harshness of the Namibian landscape just emphasises this fact. And if that habitat changes or, worse still, is destroyed, the birds disappear. This is true even at a very micro level, say if a single tree is chopped down.
In some ways therefore, the birds and where you find them, are a leading indicator of changes to the environment. Somewhat like how canaries were used in the coal mines to monitor air quality in the old days. So, birds matter, even if you don’t realise it. Birds are a barometer of environmental health and change.
We saw and photographed over 300 bird species in Namibia, which we were quite pleased with, it being winter, outside of the breeding and migratory seasons; as well as another 150 bird species in Botswana.
There are over 620 species of birds recorded in Namibia. Of those, 15 are endemic (or near-endemic) to the country. An endemic species is a species that hatches, matures, reproduces and die within one single geographic area. The habitat of an area needs to be very special for an endemic bird to survive as it needs to satisfy all of the bird’s needs throughout its lifetime.
Of the fifteen endemic or near-endemic birds, we have seen and photographed thirteen of them.
The one we have missed photographing is Hartlaub’s Spurfowl, which we saw and flushed several times, but no photographs. The last time we missed photographing the Hartlaub’s was when we walked straight into the path of a large male leopard at Halali camp in Etosha National Park.
And we have yet to get to the far north west of Namibia to see the Benguela Long-billed Lark.
The Namibian endemic birds we have photographed are, in the orderof the photos below;
Barlow's Lark, Gray's Lark, Dune Lark, Hartlaub's Ruppell's Korhaan, White-tailed Shrike, Ruppell's Parrot, Herero Chat, Rockrunner, Carp's Tit, Bare-cheeked Babbler, Violet Woodhoopoe, and the Damara Tern and Monteiro's Hornbill.
(In the photo of the Damara Tern, it is the smallest Tern on the bottom right. The other small Tern is the Common and the two larger birds are Sandwich Terns).
But this is my favourite birding story from our whole trip: One day along the Okavango flood plain, we were watching and photographing some incredible birds and birding behaviour. Along comes a local man on his way home to his village. As always, we stop to chat. What’s up? How is the fishing? And then the questions: “Where are you from?” …
“South Africa”; then “What are you doing?” … “Well, we are watching these birds”. Then there was a very long, thoughtful pause. Eventually the man asks “So, don’t you have any birds in your own country?” What could I say?
