Dawie H. de Swardt

Culna Articles

Life history strategies of resident vs nomadic larks

BY Dawie H. de Swardt June 14, 2021

Adaptations in bill morphology, diet preferences and social structures: insights from some species in the Free State.

By Dawie de Swardt.

LBJ’s or “little brown jobs” in birding terms are cryptic or brownish birds and most of the time difficult to identify. Larks, together with other generally drab-coloured birds such as pipits, warblers and cisticolas; are small to medium-sized passerines with such cryptic plumages. They occur mostly in open, structurally simple habitats, ranging from desert and semi-deserts, the Karoo areas, to the moister transitional grasslands and savannah woodlands to the east. Many larks exhibit substrate colour-matching, the dorsal plumage in particular bearing a resemblance to the substrate of the environment it inhabits.

Culna Articles

Birds of the Oliewenhuis koppies

BY Dawie H. de Swardt June 12, 2020

Image credit: Malachite Sunbird, Nectarinia famosa, male Derek Keats

Over 90 bird species have been recorded at the Oliewenhuis koppie and gardens, making it a bird lover’s paradise. The Oliewenhuis Art Museum is situated on Grant’s Hill in Bloemfontein and is surrounded by 12 acres of natural vegetation. The Oliewenhuis koppie stretches right up to the boundary fence on top of the hill. It has four well marked walking trails through the unspoilt natural surroundings.

Culna Articles

Secretarybird breeding observations in the Bloemfontein area

BY Dawie H. de Swardt February 13, 2020

Secretarybirds are loved and admired by birdwatchers, tourists, farmers and conservationists. This bird is also the first bird species which is referred to when I speak with farmers. Secretarybirds are grassland specialists known for catching snakes and killing them by kicking them with pin-point accurate stomps of their powerful feet. They also forage on grasshoppers, rodents, reptiles like lizards and also small birds. They even swallow grassland birds’ eggs like those of francolins and even a Northern Black Korhaan while foraging for food and bring these back to their nests.

News Items

Museum research shows that Red-billed Buffalo-weavers have become extinct in the Free State due to deforestation

BY Dawie H. de Swardt May 10, 2019

The Ornithology Department of the National Museum is calling upon members of the public to look out for the Red- Billed Buffalo- weaver in the Free State and to report any sightings. From the distribution data available, this weaver is now extinct to the Free State. Deforestation of large tracks of camel thorn savannah for agriculture and firewood has been identified as the likely cause of the local extinction of this weaver.

The Red-billed Buffalo-weaver is a large, heavy-billed weaver that has a red to orange coloured bill. The male has black plumage and its flank feathers are mottled with white. The female’s plumage is more brownish black and the feathers on the belly are slightly scaled.

Ornithology Articles

Biometrics and diet of two closely related birds: Karoo Prinia (Prinia maculosa) and Drakensberg Prinia (Prinia hypoxantha)

BY Dawie H. de Swardt March 29, 2019

Dawid H. de Swardt¹, Department of Ornithology, National Museum, Bloemfontein; Alan Lee², DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town; Hennie J.B. Butler³, Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein; H. Dieter Oschadleus⁴, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Abstract

Karoo Prinia (Prinia maculosa) and Drakensberg Prinia (Prinia hypoxantha) from various localities in South Africa and Lesotho were studied. Biometric data were obtained mainly during ringing studies. Karoo Prinia biometrics were analysed at subspecies level (P. m. maculosa, P. m. exultans, P. m. psammophila).