White-browed Coucal - Centropus superciliosus
We are into the last week of 2012 and I am making a mad effort to try and post up every last bird I saw this year so that I can start the year really hungry for new photographs. It has been a fantastic year for photographs with at the current count 177 species added to the list. Thats more like one every other day than a daily bird but its still a huge number of mostly new birds. When I birded an annual list in the UK I would be lucky (with some very mild birding) to see 130-150 species in a year. I didn't twitch - I just went out to see what I could see. So in that context I have had my fill of birds and rather than ending up with a list on a piece of paper and the anxiety that I have to repeat the whole thing bird for bird next year I can be content that the main effort will be with things that are new - but also getting better pictures of those birds already in my collection. Thats a good challenge and keeps the camera interested.
I have seen Coucal's all over India and I wasn't suprised to bump into them again in Africa. They are clumsy big noisy birds that crash through the bushes and trees. Related to cuckoos but not in the habit of parasiting nests with their young. They make a living on insects but some of the larger species will also take mice, small lizards and even snakes. There are 122 species in the wider cuckoo family for me to collect over time. Coucals are easy to spot - they bluster into a bush more like a gorilla than a bird. Hardly the most subtle of woodland specialists.
Lake Manyara, Tanzania
July 2012
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