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Submit an article to Indago - a peer reviewed journal
Submit an article to Indago - a peer reviewed journal
Category

Ornithology Articles

Category

Introduction

A diagnosis and an identification of a species or any other recognized taxon imply two distinct things. Essentially, the ability to identify a species is the ability to recognize individuals in the field, whether they are at Brakfontein Private Nature Reserve, Wesselsbron in the Free State or in the Melmoth area, KwaZulu-Natal, and to say what species they belong to.

Imagine you are busy birding and walking in a field with low shrub vegetation in the southern Free State or in the Central Karoo and your attention is drawn to a constantly high pitched tee-tee-tee bird sound near you. Suddenly a small prinia-like bird with a long tail flies out of a low bush or runs like a mouse in front you. This bird is likely to be the elusive Rufous-eared Warblerโ€ฆ

Since the early 19th century collecting bird eggs was a popular hobby for naturalists worldwide. Many private collections were later donated to museums for curation. ย Egg collecting and the study of eggs is known as oology which is one aspect of ornithological research. Egg collectors mostly collect eggs from birdsโ€™ nests for their own private collections.

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

By Dawie de Swardt.

LBJโ€™s or โ€œlittle brown jobsโ€ in birding terms are cryptic or brownish birds and most of the time difficult to identify.ย  Larks, together with other generally drab-coloured birds such as pipits, warblers and cisticolas; are small to medium-sized passerines with such cryptic plumages.ย  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.