SOUTHERN GREY-HEADED SPARROW

451          SOUTHERN GREY-HEADED SPARROW        Passer diffusus

South Africa          (115)

Found in savanna and woodlands. Range Angola and Zambia, spreading south into South Africa, now found over most of Southern Africa, where it is also kept as a cage bird. 15 cm.

YELLOW-THROATED PETRONIA

450           YELLOW-THROATED PETRONIA          Gymnoris superciliaris

South Africa            (114)

Found indoor woodland, savanna and riverine bush. 15 cm. Found across n. and down eastern third of Southern Africa.

RED-BILLED QUELEA

449           RED-BILLED QUELEA       Quelea quelea

South Africa          (113)

Range over most of Southern Africa except sw coast. Abundant in savanna and cereal fields. Usually found in large flocks, sometimes numbering millions. 12 cm.

FISCAL FLYCATCHER

448           FISCAL FLYCATCHER            Sigelus silens

South Africa              (112)

Resident breeder in Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, and a vagrant to Nambia. Found in subtropical open woodland, dry savanna, shrubland and suburban gardens. 17-20 cm. 

PALE FLYCATCHER

447        PALE FLYCATCHER            Bradornis pallidus

South Africa           (111)

17 cm. Found in moist broadleaf woodland. Range ne third of Southern Africa.

COMMON SANDPIPER

446          COMMON SANDPIPER             Actitis hypoleucos

South Africa        (110)

18-20 cm. Breeds across most of temperate and sub-tropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter. It forages picking up insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates. In the Nukumanu Islands the sandpiper is called matakakoni, a taboo name when women and children are around because it means 'bird that walks a little, then copulates'; this is a reference to its head thrusting and tail-pumping as it forages.

PINK-BACKED PELICAN

445           PINK-BACKED PELICAN             Pelecanus rufescens

South Africa            (109)

Ranges across Africa, southern Arabia, southern India and possibly Madagascar. 125-155 cm, wingspan 2.15-2.9 m. Found in many aquatic habitats, but prefers quiet backwaters with shallow water, avoiding steep, vegetated lake banks; prefers freshwater lakes swamps, large slow-flowing rivers and seasonal pools, but also frequents seasonal floodplains. 

CRESTED SHRIKE-TIT

Photographed at Eubalong West, NSW, December 2014

444          CRESTED SHRIKE-TIT          Falcunculus frontatus

Australia              (302)

Found in rainforests, eucalyptus forests/woodlands; in inland se Australia river red gums on watercourses, especially saplings or young trees; also acacia, coastal tea tree, banksia or cypress pines, golf courses and gardens. Range sw WA, Top End, around Rockhampton area, a pocket near Adelaide and down east coast and inland from Tropic to SA border. At present there are three sub-species.

EUROPEAN HERRING GULL

443           EUROPEAN HERRING GULL          Larus argentatus

Britain          (14)

66 cm. One of best known gulls all along shores of western Europe; breeds n,w e and central Europe, Scandinavia and Baltic; some winter further south, some stay in British Isles, Iceland and North Sea. Abundant around inland rubbish dumps.

Herring Gull, juvenile

BLACK-HEADED GULL

Black-headed Gull in winter plumage.

442             BLACK-HEADED GULL          Chroicocephalus ridibundus

Britain          (13)

Breeds in much of Europe and Asia, also coastal eastern Canada, some birds also winter in ne North America, where it was formerly known as Common Black-headed Gull. 38-44 cm, 94-105 cm. The eggs of the Black-headed Gull are considered a delicacy in the UK and are eaten hard boiled. Cheer in Watershed Downs was a Black-headed Gull. In the 1990s a Black-headed Gull was sighted in Broome, Australia by Brian Kane