Tag Archives: Zambia

Expedition To Machile IBA, Zambia – Part 3

Posted on by
Reply

In this final installment of my series on Machile IBA (Part 1 & Part 2), we enjoy a leisurely birding drive back along that smaller road to the main road which is the road between Livingstone and Kazangula.  Since I got my target bird, the Black-cheeked Lovebird; it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy seeing some of the other beautiful birds in the area!

Lilac-breasted Roller

Crowned Lapwing

African Openbill Stork – there’s a slight gap and he can’t close his beak completely.

Crowned Lapwing

Malachite Kingfisher

The White-fronted Bee-eater is blurred out but you can see the bright blue of the Malachite Kingfisher in the swamp.

Goshawk??

Crested Barbet

Just a cool angle, not sure what this is but looks like it is half dragon!

Crimson-breasted Shrike trying to hide from the paparazzi!

I was especially happy to see the lovely, elegant Meyer’s Parrot which I had not seen since Tarangire in Tanzania.

Blurry flight shots!

Last look at a local house.

I’ve always admired how African ladies carry these huge things on their heads!

It wasn’t long after reaching the main road that the sun set on our wonderful adventure! 

If you want to visit this area and see these fabulous birds, please contact Chiinga at Savannah Southern Safaris, he’s an amazing guide who found all these gorgeous birds for us!

 

Expedition To Machile IBA, Zambia – Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing on from Part 1, we will now visit the Machile IBA (Important Bird Area) and meet the target bird, the charming little Black-cheeked Lovebirds and a few other birds that were in the area.

We stopped at an office to get permission, then set up in a privately owned farm to look for the lovebirds.  Other birds were in the area as well of course!

Our first sighting, I didn’t get good photos, lucky we saw them again later!

African Harrier Hawk

Southern Red-billed Hornbill

Sunbird

I know I am going a bit overboard with pics of the Black-cheeked Lovebird but considering how rare and endangered they are it’s worth it!

Cardinal Woodpecker

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Black-cheeked Lovebird (Agapornis nigrigenis)

Posted on by
Reply

The Black-cheeked Lovebird (Agapornis nigrigenis) is a rare and endangered small parrot species of the lovebird genus.

They are endemic to a small part of Zambia.  The only realistic way to see them in the wild is by visiting the Machile IBA on a day trip from Livingstone.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BLACK-CHEEKED LOVEBIRDS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Science Net Links

VIDEOS

I couldn’t find any clips of wild birds on Youtube but here’s some captive Lovebirds to see their movements and hear their calls.  There are others on HBW.

 

Expedition To Machile IBA, Zambia – Part 1

Posted on by
Reply

Visiting the Machile IBA which is the stronghold of the lovely little Black-cheeked  Lovebird was one of the highlights of our trip.  Although it seems to be about 130-ish kms from Livingstone and therefore an easy commute, it is anything but easy.  This is not a trip you want to DIY as it involves convoluted little back roads with no signposts.  Thankfully Chiinga from Savannah Southern Safaris and his driver, Ken know how to get out there although even they had to stop and think about a  couple of the forks in the road!

Part 1 will cover the journey to get to Machile IBA.

We were picked up at Fawlty Towers very early, like around 3 or 3:30 am.  The road is in terrible condition and it took around 3 hours to get to the place where we picked up Brian  who was assisting in the conservation project.  This is where we stopped for breakfast.

Just because we were eating breakfast doesn’t mean we stop birding!

Kingfisher

Common Scimitarbill

Heading back down the road to Machile IBA, the roads are basically like these:

Some king of family memorial iirc.

We passed several tiny villages and houses.

Chiinga was standing in the back of the truck and banged the roof to get the driver to stop so I could take photos.  We did see quite a few birds along the way but my photos didn’t turn out so well.  I got better shots on the way back though, so patience!

Common Scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas)

Posted on by
Reply

The Common Scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas) is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. It’s pretty obvious how they got their name!

Their range covers a large chunk of Africa including in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  I saw them at the Machile IBA which is near Livingstone, Zambia.

LEARN MORE ABOUT COMMON SCIMITARBILLS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Biodiversity Explorer

VIDEO

This nesting pair is busy feeding some chicks inside.

 

Zambezi River Sunset Cruise – Lady Livingstone

Posted on by
Reply

A must for any tourist in Zambia is a sunset river cruise whether you are a birder or not.  But birders can take full advantage of being in the middle of the river with excellent views over both Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the river to spot some cool birds!  There are several cruise boat operators in Livingstone, I suggest checking with the reception of your lodge for any current specials they may have.  Fawlty Towers had a $10 off deal on the posh Lady Livingstone and we were able to book it with a few hours notice!

They picked us up about half an hour before the cruise and brought us to the luxury David Livingstone Lodge where we paid for the cruise and waited to board.  This is where we made a mistake, you have to sign in before they let you board and we almost didn’t get seats on the top tier of the boat (best for birders) but luckily I managed to drag a chair over to the rear for stunning views.

Welcome aboard with wine.

Birders want to be on that 3rd deck at the rear.  If you are lucky, one of the crew may know something about birds and join you but I am not sure of crew staffing.  It’s not designed to be a birding cruise.  It’s a sunset cruise with snacks and drinks included.  There is live music on the bottom deck. 

While waiting you can watch other tourists flying overhead in helicopters and light aircraft.

Off we go!

I will try to identify the birds we saw, I do have a check list but can’t match them all to the photos (my bad photography).  I have tons of shots that are even blurrier than these, some of which were Hail Mary’s at the Grey-headed Parrots but no luck!

We saw lots of other boats passing by, none as nice as ours though!  Drinks and snacks are brought around and you can have all you want.  I stopped drinking when it began to affect my ability to hold the camera somewhat straight!  These sunset cruises can also be referred to as “booze cruises” with good reason!

I did one of these ultralight trips back in the mid 90’s from the Zimbabwe side, they have gone way up in price since then!

Sun is beginning to set.

Musicians on the bottom deck, even this shot was blurry but I didn’t have the flash out.

After the cruise, they returned us to Fawlty Towers.  Although it’s not a dinner cruise per se, I found the snacks were filling enough that we weren’t hungry and didn’t need to eat dinner afterwards, more savings!

Blue Waxbill (Uraeginthus angolensis)

Posted on by
1

The Blue Waxbill (Uraeginthus angolensis), also called Southern Blue Waxbill, Blue-breasted Waxbill, Southern Cordon-bleu, Blue-cheeked Cordon-bleu, Blue-breasted Cordon-bleu and Angola Cordon-bleu, is a common species of estrildid finch found in Southern Africa.

They have a very large range all over Southern Africa so you are quite likely to see them.  I’ve seen them at Mosi-oa-Tunya NP in Zambia and Kruger NP in South Africa.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BLUE WAXBILLS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Biodiversity Explorer

SA Venues

VIDEOS

Getting up close and personal with this little cutie!

I don’t know if this one is tired or just bored.

 

Foraging on the ground.

 

Visiting Victoria Falls & Mosi-oa-Tunya NP, Zambia

Posted on by
Reply

You can choose to see the magnificent Victoria Falls from either Zambia, Zimbabwe or both.  If you want to visit both sides, be sure to get the KAZA visa which is $50 at the point of entry.  Most accommodations have shuttle buses to get you to the park entrance but in our case, we had to go to the National Art Gallery first to pay for our birding trip so we had to hire a taxi from Fawlty Towers to the gallery, then to the park.  We settled a time for the driver to come back and pick us up again.  I forget the actual cost but it was very reasonable.

There is a view point on the Mosi-oa-Tunya Road to see the mist rising above the falls.

You enter the grounds and the taxi will drop you at the place you pay your entrance fee, $10 USD or the equivalent in Kwacha.

You have been warned!

Car park and shopping area, some people choose to have their taxis wait here.

All the trails are very well marked.  Most people will go direct to the falls, get drenched, then walk around the park while they dry off.  That’s what we did!

The closer you get, the wetter you get.  If you don’t have rain ponchos, you can rent or buy them at several kiosks.

The falls are very powerful from this angle.  You can walk across the bridge but I only went as far as the entrance because I was worried about my camera gear.  Even with the ponchos, we were hard pressed to protect the cameras……………and take pictures!

I think these are Egyptian Geese but I only saw them from the rear.

You have to look twice to see which restroom to use!

Nice butterflies!

Signs point the way to the various trails.

Baboons are everywhere so don’t even carry food, they will steal it!

Cordon-blue Waxbill

Helicopters were frequent, birds less frequent but we were there around mid-day so that was probably the reason.

This trail looked interesting but too steep for us.

Beaded bird, I already have one like this from a previous trip.

There are several souvenir shops near the entrance, good place to kill time while waiting for your taxi or shuttle back to town.

This was a pretty brief visit to the falls and there are so many other ways to experience Mosi-oa-Tunya NP such as helicopers, light aircraft, rafting and the traditional Zambezi River cruise………………more on that coming soon!

Livingstone National Art Gallery

Posted on by
Reply

This was a lucky coincidence as I hadn’t been researching galleries or museums thinking we wouldn’t have time to visit either.  But I needed to pay for the birding trip with Savannah Southern Safaris (wait for the separate post) and they happen to be located in the lobby of the National Art Gallery.

We had taken a taxi out there and the driver was waiting as I thought it would be a quick run in, put the credit card through the machine and back off to the Victoria Falls waterfall area.  It actually took quite awhile as the girl tried again and again to process the credit card and couldn’t get a connection.  This gave me plenty of time to look around the art gallery.  They have an amazing variety of artwork for sale and I highly recommend coming out here both to see the art and book Savannah Southern Safaris!

Here’s some of what you can expect!

I was quite tempted by that one with the birds in the trees but it was over my budget and too big for the backpack.

Happily the credit card finally went through and I not only paid for my birding trip but bought these two bird drawings by Alec Lishandu which are now on my living room wall!