Africa Wild

Family Remizidae Penduline Tits

Penduline tits are tiny passerines, ranging from 7.5 to 11 cm in length, that resemble the true tits (Paridae) but have finer bills with more needle-like points. Their wings are short and rounded and their short tails are notched (except the stub-tailed tit). The penduline tits' typical plumage colors are pale grays and yellows and white.

Family Remizidae Penduline Tits Index
Anthoscopus minutus Cape Penduline-Tit 558 https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic. ... 83#p184583
Anthoscopus caroli Grey Penduline-Tit 557

575. Cape Penduline-Tit Anthoscopus minutus
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Remizidae


Description
9-10 cm. Distinguished by very small size, black forehead and yellow underparts.

Distribution
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It is locally common across the western half of South Africa, extending east into the North-West Province, Limpopo Province and Gauteng.

Habitat
It generally prefers semi-arid or arid dwarf shrubland, as well as dry Acacia savanna.

Diet
It mainly eats insects and their larvae, supplemented with small fruit. Family groups forage together, gleaning prey from leaves and bark, often searching spider webs for invertebrates.

Breeding
Monogamous, facultative cooperative breeder, meaning that the breeding pair are occasionally assisted by up to two helpers. It usually produces two broods per breeding season. Both sexes construct the nest, which is an oval-shaped bag built of plant down, wool, fur and other woolly material. A collapsible entrance spout is placed near the top, which can be opened and closed by drawing the top and bottom sides of the tube together. Underneath the entrance there is a small ridge which serves as a perch for the bird to open the entrance spout with one foot. The top and bottom of the nest are usually attached to the twigs of a tree, approximately 1-7 metres above ground. The top and sides of the nest are usually attached with spider web to droopy branches of a thorny tree or bush.
Egg-laying season is almost year-round, peaking during summer. It lays 4-7 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for approximately 13-15 days.
The chicks are fed by both the parents and the helpers, the food delivery rate increasing as they get older. They leave the nest after 16-22 days, only becoming independent towards the end of the breeding season.

Call

Status
Common near endemic resident.

552. Ashy Tit Melaniparus cinerascens

© nan
Windhoek, Namibia

Links:
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

Nicator is a genus of songbird endemic to Africa. The genus contains three medium sized passerine birds. A number of features, including the position of the facial bristles (which are preorbital rather than rictal), their nests and the calls, make the genus unique, and DNA studies have recently suggested that the genus is best treated as a monogeneric family, Nicatoridae.
The nicators are shrike-like birds, 16–23 cm in length. The Eastern and Western Nicators are similar in size and larger than the Yellow-throated Nicator. The males are considerably heavier than the females. The nicators have heavy hooked bills. The plumage of the genus is overall olive on the backs, tail and wings, with yellow spotting on the wings, and lighter grey or whitish undersides.
The nicators are endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa and occupy a wide range of forest and woodland habitats. The Western Nicator has a mostly continuous distribution from Senegal to eastern Uganda and northern Angola. The Eastern Nicator has a discontinuous distribution in East Africa from Somalia south to eastern South Africa. The Yellow-throated Nicator is distributed in central Africa from Cameroon to Uganda.


Family Nicatoridae (Nicators)
Nicator gularis Eastern Nicator 575

Family Nicatoridae (Nicators)
Nicator gularis Eastern Nicator 575 viewtopic.php?f=244&p=184606#p184606

575. Eastern Nicator (Formerly known as Yellow-spotted Nicator) Nicator gularis (Geelvleknikator)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Nicatoridae


Description
23 cm. Greenish upperparts with yellow spotting on the wing coverts and a grey-brown wash to the crown and ear-coverts. Underparts yellow (green-brown and whiter on the belly with a yellow vent).
Juveniles have smaller spots.
Similar species: It could be confused with female Black Cuckooshrike but that species is heavily barred below.

Distribution
A tropical species ranging as far north as Somalia and reaching its southernmost breeding limits at St Lucia Estuary. It is commonly encountered from there northwards, especially in the lowlying bushveld areas. It is found across Mozambique, Swaziland, northern and south-eastern Zimbabwe, eastern Limpopo Province and KwaZulu-Natal.

Habitat
Thick riverine bush, especially where sandy soils prevail. It generally prefers lowland secondary, evergreen and coastal forest, dense undergrowth of miombo (Brachystegia) woodland, moist thornveld and riverine forest.

Diet
Insectivorous. Follows mammals such as nyala and warthog, taking flushed insects; also occasionally gleans ticks from mammals.

Breeding
Monogamous and territorial. The nest is a platform of stalks, tendrils and twigs with a shallow cup; it is not woven like the nest of a Bulbul. It is usually well-concealed, and about one metre above the ground. Two to three eggs are laid November to January.

Call
Calls frequently from tree-top song post. Loud series of repetitive bulbul-like bubbling notes, wip,chip chop rrup chopchopchop krrip krrr; sometimes includes mimicry. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common resident.



Links:
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/575.pdf
Sabap2: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3
BirdInfo
Newman's Birds of Southern Africa

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. They occur in the Old World, and in Australia. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in dry regions.
Larks are small- to medium-sized birds, 12 to 24 cm in length. Most larks are fairly dull in appearance. They feed on insects and seeds.
They have more elaborate calls than most birds, and often extravagant songs given in display flight. With these song flights, males defend their breeding territories and attract mates. Most species build nests on the ground, usually cups of dead grass, but in some species more complicated and partly domed. A few desert species nest very low in bushes, perhaps so circulating air can cool the nest. Larks incubate for 11 to 16 days.
Like many ground birds, most lark species have long hind claws, which are thought to provide stability while standing. Most have streaked brown plumage, some boldly marked with black or white. Their dull appearance camouflages them on the ground, especially when on the nest.
They feed on insects and seeds; though adults of most species eat seeds primarily, all species feed their young insects for at least the first week after hatching. Many species dig with their bills to uncover food. Some larks have heavy bills (reaching an extreme in the Thick-billed Lark) for cracking seeds open, while others have long, down-curved bills, which are especially suitable for digging.
Larks are the only passerines that lose all their feathers in their first moult (in all species whose first moult is known). This may result from the poor quality of the chicks' feathers, which in turn may result from the benefits to the parents of switching the young to a lower-quality diet (seeds), which requires less work from the parents.
In many respects, including long tertial feathers, larks resemble other ground birds such as pipits. However, in larks the tarsus (the lowest leg bone, connected to the toes) has only one set of scales on the rear surface, which is rounded. Pipits and all other songbirds have two plates of scales on the rear surface, which meet at a protruding rear edge.

Larks are a tricky identification challenge for most greenies and even for our most experienced birders and, together with Cisticolas and Pipits they add to the never ending fun of LBJs If you want to join the fun, post your Larks here for ID: Bird Identification.

Links:
An appreciation of larks - Percy FitzPatrick Institute (PDF)

Family Alaudidae (Larks)
Mirafra passerina Monotonous Lark 493
Mirafra cheniana Melodious Lark 492
Mirafra africana Rufous-naped Lark 494
Mirafra rufocinnamomea Flappet Lark 496
Mirafra apiata Cape Clapper Lark 495
Mirafra fasciolata Eastern Clapper Lark 495.2
Heteromirafra ruddi Rudd's Lark 499
Calendulauda africanoides Fawn-colored Lark 497
Calendulauda sabota Sabota Lark 498
Calendulauda albescens Karoo Lark 502
Calendulauda erythrochlamys Dune Lark 503
Calendulauda barlowi Barlow's Lark
Calendulauda burra Red Lark 504
Certhilauda benguelensis Benguela Long-billed Lark
Certhilauda subcoronata Karoo Long-billed Lark
Certhilauda semitorquata Eastern Long-billed Lark 500.2
Certhilauda curvirostris Cape Long-billed Lark 500
Certhilauda brevirostris Agulhas Long-billed Lark 500.1
Certhilauda chuana Short-clawed Lark 501
Pinarocorys nigricans Dusky Lark 505
Chersomanes albofasciata Spike-heeled Lark 506
Ammomanopsis grayi Gray's Lark 514
Calandrella cinerea Red-capped Lark 507
S p i z o co r y s conirostris Pink-billed Lark 508
S p i z o c o r y s fringillaris Botha's Lark 509
S p i z o c o r y s sclateri Sclater's Lark 510
S p i z o c o r y s starki Stark's Lark 511
Galerida magnirostris Large-billed Lark, Southern Thick-billed Lark 512
Eremopterix australis Black-eared Sparrow-Lark 517
Eremopterix leucotis Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark 515
Eremopterix verticalis Grey-backed Sparrow-Lark 516 https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic. ... 20#p317120

493. Monotonous Lark Mirafra passerina (Bosveldlewerik)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Alaudidae


Description
Size: 14 cm. A compact Lark with a stout bill. The Monotonous Lark is short-tailed and has a white throat which contrasts strongly with the poorly marked brown facial area (unlike that of the Melodious Lark) and dark slightly streaky breast. Display flight is short, with the bird launching itself from a perch and rising to 15-20 m calling all the time. Usually sings from a perch on a bush or tree, by day and night.
The juvenile is more mottled than the adult.
Similar species: Distinguished from Stark's Lark in flight by its chestnut wing patches. The white flanks and belly distinguish this species from the very similar Melodious Lark. The Monotonous Lark is inconspicuous and difficult to identify unless it is singing. It can be confused with the Melodious Lark, but differs in having a white eyebrow that stops short of the bill, a white belly and a different display and song. The white throat of the Monotonous Lark is conspicuous when singing.

Distribution
Near-endemic to southern Africa, occurring from southern Angola and south-western Zambia to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and northern South Africa. Recorded widely in northern Namibia, throughout Botswana, at scattered localities in western and southern Zimbabwe, and in the woodlands of the Transvaal and northern Cape Province.

Habitat
Thornveld and mopane woodland with sparse grass cover. It occupies a variety of habitat types, however it generally prefers semi-arid savanna and woodland, such as bushwillow (Combretum) woodland, the border between miombo (Brachystegia) woodland and vegetation along drainage lines and sparsely wooded Acacia savanna.

Diet
It does most of its foraging on the ground, feeding on invertebrates and grass seeds.

Breeding
The nest is a deep cup built of dry grass and placed on the ground at the base of or between to tufts of grass, the leaves of which are sometimes incorporated into a dome over the nest. Egg-laying season is from October-March, peaking during January. It lays 2-4 white, heavily mottled or speckled eggs.

Call
Frequently repeated trrp-chup-chip-choop. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common resident and nomad; near-endemic. Summer visitor to the south of its range.

493. Monotonous Lark Mirafra passerina (Bosveldlewerik)



© Michele Nel
Etosha

© leachy
Klopperfontein, Kruger National Park

Links:
Speces text Sabap1
Sabap2: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3
Engelbrecht D, Grosel J 2011. Territory establishment and the mating system of the nomadic Monotonous Lark
Avian Leisure: TWO LOOK-ALIKE LARKS WITH TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES