Rael Loon - Birds – the Inside Story: Exploring Birds and their Behaviour in Southern Africa

DEDICATION

To our parents Rod and Adre and Hilton and Jacqui for instilling in us a fascination for and appreciation of the natural world.

Published by Struik Nature
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town, 8001
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa

Visit us at www.randomstruik.co.za
Log on to our photographic website www.imagesofafrica.co.za for an African experience.

First published in 2005

5 7 9 10 8 6 4

Copyright in text, 2005: Rael and Hlne Loon
Copyright in illustrations, 2005: Hlne Loon
Copyright in published edition, 2005: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd
Copyright in photographs as credited below Sonograms, , reproduced with kind permission of the trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund

Publishing manager: Pippa Parker
Managing editor: Lynda Harvey
Editors: Helen de Villiers and Piera Abbott
Designer: Janice Evans
Cover design: Janice Evans
Illustrator: Hlne Loon
Proofreader: Glynne Newlands
Indexer: Mary Lennox

Reproduction by
Hirt and Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd
Printed and bound by
Kyodo Printing Co (SPore) Pte Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners and publishers.

ISBN 978 1 77007 151 3

PICTURE CREDITS

Nigel Dennis:

Nigel Dennis/IOA:

Peter Steyn:

Warwick Tarboton:

Peter Pickford/IOA:

R & H Loon:

Richard du Toit: sponsors page;

Roger de la Harpe/IOA:

Shaen Adey/IOA:

Nico Myburgh:

Keith Begg/IOA:

Colleen Begg:

Hugh Chittenden:

Martin Harvey/IOA:

Mich Veldman:

Andrew Bannister/IOA:

Rita Meyer/IOA:

Peter Ryan:

Ian Michler/IOA:

Hein von Horsten/IOA:

Tim Jackson:

Tony Camacho/IOA:

Albert Froneman:

Chris Van Rooyen:

Malcolm Wilson:

Frans Lanting:

Gerhard Dreyer/IOA:

Colour Library/IOA:

Peter Hancock:

John Pilcher:

Mark Anderson:

Carl Vernon:

Steve Johnson:

Colin Bell:

Bob Bloomfield:

M & C Denis-Huot:

Courtesy of Van Riebeek Society, Cape Town:

Courtesy of Library of Parliament:

Homo sapiens seems to thrive on acquiring secret facts finding out the tantalizing story-behind-the-story.

The extensive collection of birding books sponsored by Sasol has stimulated a pastime locally that is among the fastest growing in the world. Yet, until now, there has been a need for a publication that really lifts the lid off birding, a book that goes beyond bird identification to enter the largely unexposed world of bird behaviour and biology.

This is exactly what Sasol Birds The Inside Story does. In their book, Rael and Hlne Loon reveal a wealth of fascinating facts about the birdlife of southern Africa, from bird flight and the role of birds feathers to bird senses, nest building, breeding, migration and even bird tracks.

We believe that this highly informative book will encourage active birders to become even more passionate about birding, and persuade prospective birders to join the flock. It is bound to become an indispensable companion book in our birding library. We are delighted to add Sasol Birds The Inside Story to our list of environmental education publications.

Pat Davies
Sasol Limited Chief Executive

We would like to thank the Struik team for the enormous effort, dedication and patience that went into this book. We are grateful to Pippa Parker for her continual guidance and support throughout the publishing process. We are indebted to Janice Evans for her painstakingly thorough attention to detail in layout and design, and her exceptional creativity that has brought the book to life. Helen de Villiers, Piera Abbott and Lynda Harvey are thanked for their great patience and expertise in editing the text. Thanks are also due to Colette Stott and Carmen Swanepoel for the daunting task of co-ordinating the photographic images sourced for the book.

Peter Ryan provided valuable comments and recommendations, for which we are grateful. We thank Malcolm Wilson, probably one of the most under-recognized ornithologists in South Africa, for his expert input. Margaret Sandwith from the Niven Library at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology helped collate reference material. The sonograms were reproduced from Roberts Birds of Southern Africa with the kind permission of the trustees of The John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. Thank you to Sasol for providing sponsorship.

A number of professional photographers added flavour to the book. Thank you to Nigel Dennis and Peter Pickford for pointing us in the right direction. Peter Steyn and Warwick Tarboton are thanked for providing numerous photographs from their exceptional collections; Richard du Toit for, among others, his unique action shot of a chacma baboon catching an Egyptian Goose fledgling; Colin Bell for his unusual shot of a Woodland Kingfisher making a meal of a bat; and Peter Hancock for his remarkable image of a Lesser Jacana chick hiding underwater, using its bill as a snorkel. Thanks to Hugh Chittenden for his image of an Olive Sunbird feeding an Emerald Cuckoo chick pigeonwood berries; and Steve Johnson for his shot of orchid pollinaria attached to a sunbirds bill. Thanks too to Bob Bloomfield, Albert Froneman, Christine Denis-Huot, Frans Lanting Inc, Nico Myburgh, Mich Veldman, Keith Begg, Malcolm Wilson, Roger de la Harpe and John Pilcher for material used.

We wish to thank our families, particularly Rod, Adre, Hilton, Jacqui, Marc, Delia and Andrew, for their moral support and encouragement. Rod Marshall, in particular, has a tremendous reservoir of bird knowledge and has always been a big inspiration to Hlne to pursue her interest in ornithology. Thank you to Adre Marshall for assisting with the editing and Jacqui Loon for moral support and final finishing touches to some of the artwork. Thanks to both for babysitting while we compiled the book!

Finally, thank you to anyone else we may have overlooked, including the dozens of fellow birders who share our passion for exploring birdlife in southern Africa, and with whom we have exchanged bird anecdotes at one time or another.

Bird watching is much like stamp collecting you dont really appreciate it until you already have some stamps in your collection to admire and compare. The more you acquire, especially if they are colourful or really unusual or rare, the more motivated you are to continue collecting.