28 Jun 23 - Angola - An Open Country Afternoon

We had started the day Birding on a trail through some dry forest near Londuimbali. This had been productive for regional endemics, albeit there weren't any Angolan endemics. After a late morning break for some food, we headed off to a local area where there were wet fields around a small river.

Brown-throated Sand Martin: This is also known as Plain Martin. This is the nominate paludicola subspecies which occurs from Angola to Zambia, South Tanzania & South Africa

Lucia Widow: This is one of the best looking & most bizarre Dragonflies that I've seen. Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to correct the identify of this species from the incorrect Portia Widow

The local rivers were used for washing clothes: The amount of detergent etc in the rivers can't help biodiversity. But the rivers can't be in worse condition than many UK rivers, thanks to the tories allowing the water companies to dump sewerage in many of our rivers

The local grasses make for perfect drying spots

We returned to the forest patch at Londuimbali and drove down a different forest track. This wasn't as productive: a Dusky Indigobird and two White-winged Black Tits were the only highlights.

White-winged Black Tit: This is the insignis subspecies which occurs from Gabon to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi & North Mozambique

Dusky Indigobird: Male. This species is also known as Variable Indigobird and I first got to know the species as African Firefinch Indigobird: which reflected its preferred host species in Kenya. This is the nigerrima subspecies which occurs from Kenya to Mozambique, Angola & Zimbabwe

After giving up on the drivable track, we returned to the original trail into the forest that we had tried in the morning. This wasn't as good as it had been in the early morning: however, early afternoon isn't the best time of time of day for tropical Birding. A party of White-crested Helmetshrikes and a couple of distant Schalow's Turacos were the highlights.

White-crested Helmetshrike: I was pleased to see another family party of White-crested Helmetshrikes

White-crested Helmetshrike: This is the poliocephalus subspecies which occurs from Central Kenya to South Uganda, South East Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia & South Africa

We had seen a number of good species during the day, so we decided to start heading back to Huambo and try a Blue Quail site in some wet agricultural fields on the way back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we were not successful on this occasion, but Blue Quail are not an easy species to see. We were successful on the following day in some adjacent fields.

Coppery-tailed Coucal: This monotypic species occurs from Angola to the South of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania & Malawi

Red-faced Cisticola: This is the lepe subspecies and it is endemic to Angola

Stout Cisticola: This is the angolensis subspecies which occurs in Angola, South Democratic Republic of the Congo& North West Zambia

Pin-tailed Whydah: This monotypic species is very widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa from South Mauritania to Eritrea and it occurs as far South as South Africa

After walking through all the nearby fields, we decided to head back to the hotel in Huambo and do the first half of the drive in the failing light.

There was a ready supply of mud bricks for housing: After that, the houses just needed some corrugated iron for the roof and wood for door and the window shutters

Many of the local houses hold the roofs in place with large stones

24 Jun 23 - Angola - A Lucky Morning At Muxima

We had spent a few hours along the dirt tracks at Muxima in the heat of the previous day, with little success. We had a second chance with a day at Muxima and there were a number of key Angolan species we were hoping to see: specifically, Grey-striped Francolin (endemic), Angola Helmetshrike (endemic), Monteiro's Bushshrike (near endemic), Falkenstein's Greenbul & Golden-backed Bishop (endemic).

We left the Carpe Diem Resort well before dawn as we had a ninety minute drive back to Muxima & we wanted to arrive for dawn. The drive was good for Mammals with an African Wild Cat, Large-spotted Genet & brief views of an unidentified Mongoose on the road. Given we had spent a week in Angola up to that point & only seen a single shy Malbrouck Monkey, a brief view of an Antelope sp., a couple of Squirrel species and a few unidentified Bats, then it was clearly a good day for Mammals. It was even better when we went on to see good views of three more Monkeys: Blue Monkeys, Malbrouck Monkey & Angolan Talapoins late in the day.

We arrived at Muxima just after dawn & tried the river again in the hope of an Egyptian Plover. But we weren't hopeful given our lack of success the previous day and the high water levels: we weren't surprised at the lack of an Egyptian Plover. We carried onto the dirt tracks to the East of Muxima to explore the Miombo woodland. We tried a narrow side track, but quickly retreated after kicking up a lot of Mosquitoes out of the long grass. The current advice is to be wary of Mosquitoes throughout Angola and we were all taking malarial tablets. While Malaria is a problem spread by night flying Mosquitoes, there is always a risk of being bitten by one disturbed during the day. Secondly, day flying Mosquitoes can transmit Dengue Fever which is a nasty & unpleasant illness which can put people in hospital for a few days and which there are no preventative tablets available. Finally, none of us wanted a lot of bites. We returned to Birding along the main track, which was wide enough& sufficiently open to not be a problem with Mosquitoes. We were greeted by a party of four White-crested Helmetshrikes as we rejoined the main track. They are one of my favourite African species and I was pleased to see them again.

White-crested Helmetshrike: This is the poliocephalus subspecies which occurs from Central Kenya to South Uganda, South East Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia & South Africa

There were some stunning big Baobabs along the dirt tracks

A number of the Baobabs have footholds cut or nailed into them: This allowed the locals to climb them to get to the fruits

We drove a bit further along the track and stopped the 4WD as Niall had heard a calling Grey-striped Francolin. Fairly quickly we saw one run across the track then reappear again. Unfortunately, it was the wrong side of the track for me to easily get a photo from the 4WD. But at least we had all had good views. We got out and tried to get some more views. There were a couple of pairs in the area and they appeared to be having a territorial dispute. I did get some more poor views in the trackside bushes, but still no photos. Just as we were getting ready to move on, an Angola Helmetshrike appeared: our second endemic of the day.

Angola Helmetshrike: This monotypic species is restricted to the Gabela escarpment in West Angola

Within minutes, a Monteiro's Bushshrike flew across the track. It was surprising how a large bulky and colourful Bushshrike can disappear into the vegetation. Angola has an endemic subspecies. There is a second subspecies that occurs on Mount Cameroon in Cameroon that was rediscovered in 1992: there are no eBird records of the Cameroon subspecies, so perhaps this is a rare subspecies.

Monteiro's Bushshrike: This is the nominate monteiri subspecies which is restricted to North West Angola

Monteiro's Bushshrike: I can just about make out the broad white eye patch

We carried on further along the track. There had been several calling Gabon Boubous during the morning, but as they were a species we had all seen well in the past, we weren't putting any effort into trying to see one. Finally, one popped out of a bush and showed itself for the camera. This was a good little area and we saw a female Golden-backed Bishop, two Little Bee-eaters and three Madagascar Bee-eaters. A skulking Greenbul started calling and turned out to be our first Falkenstein's Greenbul. There were a couple of pairs in the area, but none showed well for more than a short view over the next hour.

Little Bee-eater: This is the meridionalis subspecies that occurs from the Congo basin to East Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Angola, Uganda & West Kenya South to the Eastern part of South Africa

Madagascar Bee-eater: This is the alternans subspecies which occurs in the Arid littoral of West Angola & North West Namibia. The other nominate subspecies occurs in Madagascar, the Comoro Islands & East Africa

Gabon Boubou: This is the guttatus subspecies which occurs in the Lower Congo River basin of West Democratic Republic of the Congo & West Angola

Gabon Boubou

Grey Tit-flycatcher: This is the catoleuca subspecies which occurs from South Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Angola Plateau, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi & Natal in South Africa

Green Crombec: This is the tando subspecies which occurs from North West Angola to the Republic of the Congo & Southern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Holub's Golden Weaver: This monotypic species occurs from Gabon to Angola, Uganda, Kenya, Botswana & Mozambique

Blue Monkey: A wary individual

Blue Monkey: It quickly disappeared from the tree when it realised we had seen it: a clear sign of the hunting pressure from the locals

Niall, Richard & Phil hoping something else good was going to pop into view

It had been a great morning where we had seen the key Angolan species we were hoping to see in the Muxima area with the endemic Grey-striped Francolin & Angola Helmetshrike and endemic subspecies of Monteiro's Bushshrike all being seen in just over an hour. We had the afternoon free to look for Long-legged Pipit & some general coastal species: which I will cover in the next Blog Post.