My last Blog Post covered the approach track to the Kinjila Forest though several miles of Miombo forest, albeit it was degraded by the inevitable areas of burnt grassland and cultivation. This approach track lead to a village which was next to an area of remnant riverine forest: this was the Kinjila Forest.
Niall parked the 4WD at the far end of the village and we walked along the continuation of track we had driven, through some dry scrub to the start of the forest. We started Birding along this raised track through the forest, when two lads from the village quickly caught up with us.
Apparently, there are six local lads who have been trained as bird and forest guides. This was the only site we visited in Angola where we saw evidence of trained local guides and it was a welcome sight. Albeit it is hard to imagine that they get many days employment a year from this guiding. With the help of Niall's basic Portuguese and photos from Merlin, he agreed to take the lads on as guides and indicated that we really wanted to see a White-headed Robinchat.
Initially, the lads took us to this large stand of Bamboo which was close to where we met them. But this proved unsuccessful.
Then they indicated they knew a better site, but it was a bit of a walk. We walked back to the village & headed out on tracks through the dry scrub. By now the mist had burnt off & it was a mile & a half walking in the heat of the late morning. However, the hot days in Angola were only in the high twenties centigrade and I never seem to struggle with the heat and sun when it's a dry heat. After thirty minutes of walking, we arrived at the edge of a forest patch. They said to stop and try to call the White-headed Robinchats in. Almost immediately the first of four really gorgeous Robinchats appeared. I'm a big fan of the Cossypha Robinchats: they are all great to look at and I think this is the best looking of the group.
I don't think we really noticed the walk back to the village where we grabbed a quick drink. Close to the village at the start of the walk, we had briefly seen a couple of Black-backed Barbets in a low bush. The others had been impatient to look for the White-headed Robinchats and raced ahead, while I hung back to get some photos of this Tick. On the way back, we were pleased to see they were still in the same bushes and they showed even better.
It was now time to head back into the main forest. It was now the heat of the day and activity in the forest was quietening down. We decided to pay the lads, along with a significant bonus for showing us the White-headed Robinchats and head back to the Miombo parts of the approach track for some lunch & to continue the Birding along the track.
The highlight of the Miombo forest birding was seeing our first Bates's Sunbird. Sunbirds can be tricky to identify. The adult males are usually straight-forward unless there are two similar-looking species in the area. However, there are lots of immature males and females which are far more similar in appearance to a number of other species. Therefore, it doesn't help when we get species like Bates's Sunbirds where even the males look like drab female Sunbirds of another species. Fortunately, we had one of the top South African Birders leading us and Niall has a good eye for the more subtle species. He was quick to pick out this Bates's Sunbird when it appeared to his trawling. It could easily be overlooked & dismissed as a female of another species or alternatively strung. The sexes are similar and they are a small dull green Sunbird with a yellowish belly & can be separated from the similar looking Little Green Sunbird by their curved bill, darker tail and less obvious or absent supercilium and the lack of the pale eye ring that Little Green Sunbird shows. It also helped that this was a male and was singing back to Niall's recording.
By mid-afternoon we were back on the main road and decided to head back to the Pousada Calandula Lodge. We stopped on the approach track to the Lodge just after a bridge over a river for the final hour or so of Birding light. There was a mass of flowers which were buzzing with Insects. One species looked like a Wasp, but the other commoner species looks like a diurnal Moth that shows some vague similarities to the Clearwings we get in the UK.
The clear Avian highlight on the approach track was my first sighting of this delightful Red-capped Crombec. It is one of the family of African Warblers.
