Oh yes, the feathered variety have their own church hierarchy.
Have a look at this guy's modern black suit. Now I know that you are going to ask me what kind of bird it is, but I will show you a bit later in this post.
We popped in at the local nature reserve to see if the growth was recovering after a wildfire 4 years ago that turned the entire area into ashes. Knowing that it takes a long time for nature to recover, we did not go back there for about 3 years. But today the rain was only expected to start again at dusk, and we used the dry opportunity to visit the reserve again. Although there was much growth, I have to say that the Protea bushes have not yet reached the flowering stage. There used to be high protea bushes here, and I posted many Cape Sugarbirds on the protea flowers. But sadly, none were seen during this visit.
Come and have a look.
Okay, now that he has turned to show the lovely yellow colors of his Gucci suit at the back, I can tell you that it was a Yellow Bishop (Euplectes capensis).
He was dressed in his breeding colors, and if you see him in his grey non-breeding colors, you will never say that it is the same bird.
And now for a different bird below.
This is an adult Black Crake (Amaurornis flavirostra) and look how it jumped across the leaves.
Although they can fly, it rather runs across the water surface, similar to the Coots. But most of the time it jumps around on the leaves in its search for food.
It seemed that the bird didn't want to get its shoes wet :)
Finally, just a look at the reed island backed by the mountain range.
We were happy to see all of the greenery again, and it will be sure to be much more colorful at the arrival of the spring season in about a month's time. We really had some good times here before the fire, as the protea bushes were so high that in some areas, they placed benches under the bushes for the public to sit on. We had a special spot a bit higher up on the hill, and one could see a wide vista of blooming protea flowers below us. The Cape Sugarbirds with their extra-long tails used to sit on the protea flowers, and I often got some lovely shots of them. But although we saw some young protea bushes now, it will take a very long time for them to reach the heights that they reached prior to the fire.
I will show you some more photos that I took here in the future.
I hope that you enjoyed the story and the pictures.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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