27 Jun 23 - Angola - More Roadside Stops

We had enjoyed a good start to the day, with a pre-dawn departure to Kumbira Forest and finally good views of a Gabela Bushshrike. The downside was we ended up getting on the road to Huambo over two hours later than planned. It wasn't long before we stopped at some productive light Miombo woodland on a side track near Dombi, where we saw at least one Western Miombo Sunbird, a single Anchieta's Sunbird, two African Spotted Creepers, a Miombo Tit and two Southern Hyliolas.

At this point, we still had most of the two hundred mile journey to drive. A couple of hours later, we had a short roadside stop before Cassongue, where we quickly saw our first Bocage's Sunbird.

Bocage's Sunbird: This monotypic species occurs in the highlands of central Angola & South West Democratic Republic of the Congo

Bocage's Sunbird

African Stonechat: Male. This is the stonei subspecies which occurs from South Democratic Republic of the Congo & West Tanzania to South & East Angola, North East Namibia, Zambia, central Zimbabwe, North & East Botswana & Northern South Africa. While I've seen many African Stonechats that look fairly similar to the Angolan population, some have been striking black & white individuals with barely any orange colouration. I find it hard to believe there isn't at least one cryptic species waiting to be described

Yellow Bishop: This is the angolensis subspecies that occurs in the North & central highlands of Angola. Part of the rationale for the June visit was the Bishops should be in breeding plumage, but many were unaware they should be

We carried on for the final stop at a bridge over the river near Cassongue. Here we had a good look for Brazza's Martin, but we were unsuccessful. We couldn't find any Brazza's Martin eBird records for June: is this a sign that they aren't around at this time of year or just a lack of Birders visiting in June. But we did see our first Black-and-rufous Swallow and Brown Firefinches, so it was still a productive stop.

African Marsh Harrier: This monotypic species occurs in the marshes & grasslands of East & South Africa

African Marsh Harrier: This was the only African Marsh Harrier we saw on the trip

African Stonechat: Female

African Pipit: This is the bocagii subspecies which occurs from Angola to Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Mozambique & North Cape Province

African Pipit

Marsh Widowbird: This is the hartlaubi subspecies which occurs in Angola, Southern Democratic Republic of the Congo & Zambia. The small orange patch in the wing indicates that this isn't a Yellow Bishop

Finally, we arrived at the town of Huambo about an hour after it got dark and then had another delay in getting onto the right road to locate the prebooked hotel. It was a reasonable hotel, with a couple of restaurants within a few minutes' walk distance of the hotel. We tried both during our stay and both provided the now expected long delays for the arrival of food, despite there being only three or four other people in the restaurants. It would have been nice to be able to get some food quicker occasionally, so that we could have had an early night.