All puffed up - Cape Glossy Starling

A Cape Glossy Starling all puffed up and taking some time out from its busy schedule.

Birding in the RSA - "The Opportunists"

This was a rare sighting, for me any way, of Cape Glossy Starlings removing ticks from a warthog. This guy must have realised that these birds were doing him a service by removing the ticks, because he stood quite still for a long time, while they got on with their business.

I love the sheen of these birds and the beady bright orange eye. I can never resist photographing them and this episode merely added an interesting new dimension to the task.

Gotcha............

Bling and dung

Since I am on the subject of dung, here are a few more "citizens" of the bush that find it just to their liking. This just goes to show that very little is left to go to waste in the bush - eventually the dung will break down and return to the soil as essential nutrients - but while it is still lying about, some creature will find a use for it.

At a certain time of the year (January and February) the Park is swarming with Brown-veined White Butterflies when they start their migration from the drier parts of the country to the more moist regions. Though moisture is not a problem for them in Addo, as long as there is fresh elephant dung lying about.

This Cape Glossy Starling, aka Bling Bird, is looking to see what delights it can find in a pile of elephant dung. In case you are wondering about the bling, click here for the origins.

Time for some bling

I always enjoy a bit of bling in the bush, like the good old Cape Glossy Starling.

Life with Suzie - Bling in the bush

Suzie and I can go on a jaunt to the same place and when you look at the photos we have taken you could be excused for wondering if we had actually been to the same place.

I tend to see the big picture and include as much of the scenery in my pictures as possible. For many years my pictures were typical holiday snapshots. If there is a bird or insect in the vicinity I will find it and photograph it.

"Where did you see that bird?" she will ask when looking at my photographs.

"It has a nest above the first door we entered," I reply.

"Oh," she says as she shows me the picture of a subtly back-lit stained glass window that she was photographing at the time I found the bird, "I never saw them.".

Suzie has an artistic eye and will find subjects that I miss every time. She focusses in on interesting details and sees things from a different angle to most people. She gets high on colour and interesting patterns. When we are travelling  she will always be the first to see the sun beams radiating through the clouds.

All I can do when I see her pictures is scratch my head and wonder how I missed that.

Then recently when we were on one of our many trips to the Addo Elephant National Park I noticed that she was stopping to photograph birds. "This is unusual," I thought, but said nothing until we rounded a corner and with great enthusiasm she exclaimed, "Look at that bird!"

At the same time I said, "Wow, look at the sun beams coming through the clouds!"

We looked at one another and laughed. There had been a role reversal.

"Since when did you develop an interst in birds," I asked.

"I don't mind birds," she replied, "As long as they have bing on them. I am still not interested in little dull grey and brown birds."

The result of that encounter is that the name of the cape glossy starling has been changed to "bling bird" aka the LBBB or the little blue bling bird.

Ticks on the hoof

With the onset of summer and after the good rains the ticks at Addo started to flourish and it did not take long for the game to be invested with these parasites. But one animal's misery is another's opportunity. 

This warthog stood around contentedly for ages, while the Cape Glossy Starlings picked away at the ticks that covered his body. They provided a feast for these enterprising birds.

Cape Glossy Starling

The glossy starling is one the many striking birds of the African bush.....I love that bright orange eye. These are fairly widespread through Southern Africa.