By Shingirai Sakarombe The outing on the 9th of March 2019 was just a regular BirdLife Zimbabwe Saturday Bird walk at the Harare Botanical Garden in the Avenues. But as a first time birder, filled with passion and interest, I was very keen to find out how birds were identified and named and craved to […]
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By BirdLife Zimbabwe Celebrating February, the month of romantic love, Lilian`s Lovebirds get their name from the strong bond which forms between a male and female. Pairs of lovebirds spend much of their time close together, regularly preening each other`s feathers. They are in fact monogamous (they have only one mate during a breeding season,
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By James Ball There are 14 Pigeon and Dove species found in Zimbabwe. The two most common dove species found in Harare Gardens are Laughing and Red-eyed Doves. Cape Turtle Doves (now renamed Ring-necked Doves) and Emerald-spotted Doves can be found in woodlands such as Mukuvisi, Haka Park and also in the Harare Botanical Gardens. Others found
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By Julia Pierini The current checklist for Zimbabwe’s birds lists 674 species, and a total of 20 sites have been identified as Important Bird (and Biodiversity) Areas (IBAs) covering 30,050 km² or 7.7% of the national land surface area. The first eight sites cover the most important biodiversity areas (for restricted-range and/or endemic birds, mammals,
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By Ronnie Chirimuta Six Birdlife Zimbabwe (BLZ) Youth Club members and two senior BLZ members visited Lake Chivero on Saturday, 8th September. Initially the outing was planned as a bird-watching exercise, in the game park on the south side of the lake. But, remembering their commitment to conserving the environment and their role as custodians of this rich
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By Ian Riddell, BirdLife Zimbabwe Our familiar summer visitors have winged their way back to the northern hemisphere, where they are already well into raising new young for the return trip, leaving us with our resident birds for the winter months. But even though the birding is quieter now there is still plenty to do. You can even get up
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Sunbirds are surely one of the most popular and delightful of bird families. The male birds at least can be described as such. The females can be recognised by their habits, size, and bills, but they are usually dull grey, brown, or olive-coloured and have no metallic flash.Since they frequently move around in pairs, one
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By Jean-Michel Blake Before I start, you may be asking yourself what exactly is a flyway? Well, a flyway is a specific area that millions of birds pass through each year, following age-old routes between their breeding and non-breeding grounds. It is within these flyway areas that the massacre of roughly 25 million birds takes
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The African Marsh Owl Asio Capensis By Ann Warner This beautiful, buff to brown-coloured owl is of medium size and has a heart-shaped face and small ear tufts which are not always visible. Its eyes are yellow with huge, black irises that seem to take up so much of their face, and heavy, lashed lids
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The Bat Hawk- The Twilight Avenger of the Skies By Julia Pierini This fast-flying, falcon-like hawk is a crepuscular bird which obtains its food in short half-hour periods just before sunset and after sunrise. It has a rather kite-like appearance when perched, except for its distinctive crest, but it more closely resembles a snake eagle in
