The calls of the long-tailed birds alerted me, and a family of them landed somewhere.
It was a bit of a search, but then I saw them in a tree across the road.
The white-backed mousebird (Colius colius) is a large species of mousebird. It is distributed in western and central regions of southern Africa from Namibia and southern Botswana eastwards to Central Transvaal and the eastern Cape.
This mousebird prefers scrubby dry habitats, such as thornveld, fynbos scrub and semi-desert.
The Wikipedia link above needs to be updated, as the white-backed mousebirds can now also be seen in the towns and suburbs of the Western Cape. The reason for them appearing here now so far south, might be because of habitat destruction, that is also responsible for other bird species from up north, migrating down to the south.
I think that the one on the left is the mom of the youngsters at the right in the picture.
Mouth to mouth? Either in love, or feeding.
I love their hair styles, the one at the front was starting to take a nap in the morning sun.
Just one more shot of the youngsters.
And further to the left top of the tree was this lot. The strange thing about the mousebirds is that they don't sleep by sitting down like other birds, and instead they hang from the tree branches to sleep. Very similar to the bigger dragonfly species.
You can see their sleeping style below, as in this picture, they were opening their bodies to warm them in the sunlight.
Another one came in to land, but the camera focus on the tree made things a bit difficult to get the shots.
And here at the top of an Acacia tree next to the green tree sat the leader, keeping a watch for predators.
But why the name mouse-birds? Simply because these birds crawl through bushes and dense trees like mice. This also makes it very difficult for predator birds to get them. But a problem for them are snakes in the trees. The birds are very alert, and they can disappear in a second, especially when they see humans close by.
Some years ago, I thought that I would never get the white-backed mousebirds on camera, as they were listed as residents of the far western part, near the desert of our country. I had all of the other mousebird species and so imagine how happy I was when I got my first white-backed mousebird on camera down here in the Cape.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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