I was part of a group who visited Zakouma National Park in mid-March this year. What an incredible place, experience and privilege. While many of the storks and larger birds were similar to those in southern Africa, all the smaller birds where different so many “lifers” were to be had!!

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” ~ Rachel Carson

Zakouma’s floodplains, rivers, marshes, and pans are valuable stopovers and breeding grounds for migrating birds, and the south-eastern wetlands form part of the Inundation Plains of Bahr Aouk and Salamat Ramsar site which is one of the largest in the world. Migrating birds typically stop over in Zakouma National Park during the dry season, from late November to late May or early June. During the wet season (June-October), the park is flooded and closed to visitors. The dry season is also when the park’s wildlife and birds congregate around remaining water sources, making it an excellent time for birdwatching and game viewing.

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” ~ Socrates

Red throated bee-eaters were as abundant in Zakouma as White fronted bee-eaters are in southern Africa. This species has beautiful colouring. It makes the typical melodious short trilling bee-eater sound and it seems to thrive in the heat which brings out all the insects.

At lunch time on our first day, with camera in hand, I was watching Tantulus monkeys cavorting in the large Tamarind trees in from of the dining area in Tinga camp. There was plenty of bird life in the trees but difficult to photograph. One speciality was a male Red shouldered cuckoo-shrike. Males are entirely black with a red or occasionally yellow-orange shoulder patch. Females have olive-gray upperparts and pale underparts with fine dark barring. Cuckoo-shrikes are neither cuckoos nor shrikes, but are so called because their feathers have similar patterns to those of cuckoos and their beak shape resembles that of shrikes.

Abyssinian roller. It looks similar to a European roller in colouring but has two long outer tail streamers. At first I thought I was looking at a Racket-tailed roller but the Abyssinian’s face and head are bluer and it does not have racket shapes at the end of its streamers. This particular roller looked to be perched on a tree stump just above a nest hole.

The Abyssinian roller is ubiquitous in Zakouma. This species of roller is found throughout the Sahel region. Like all rollers it is a perch hunter.

On our morning game drive to the Rigueik pan we came across this Long crested eagle on a dead tree trunk. It was scanning the surrounding area for prey. It did not seem too fussed about us close by but did eventually fly off to find a better view. Rodents make up to 98% of their diet.

A North African green bee-eater. It is small just slightly larger than a Little bee-eater and is predominantly emerald green with a black throat necklace. Like many bee-eaters it has a black eye band which presumably reduces the sun’s glare when hawking insects.

One of the birds I really wanted to see was the Abyssinian ground hornbill. It is one of the two ground hornbill species found in Africa and is the only species found north of the equator. Both male and female have black body feathers and both sexes have a blue eye ring. The adult male has an inflatable pouch of bare skin on the neck and throat which is red, apart from the upper throat which is blue.

Both the male and female Abyssinian ground hornbill have a large grooved truncated casque above their upper mandible. Various theories suggest functions for the casques of hornbills could include feeding, fighting, mating and species recognition. The casque is also thought to act as a resonating chamber to amplify their calls. Like the Southern ground hornbill this species makes a booming call which can usually be heard just before dawn when the air is cool and relatively denser which allows the boom call to carry further.

The female Abyssinian ground hornbill has entirely blue facial skin and a blue throat pouch. She is slightly smaller than the male but also has long eyelashes and a beige slanted stripe at the base of her upper mandible. The reason for the stripe is unknown.

Another special for this region is the Black crowned crane. It differs from its grey cousin with its charcoal neck and breast feathers. The darker appearance of the Black crowned crane emphasises its facial colouring and golden crown.

Both the Black and Grey crowned cranes have a golden crown at the back of their head and a small red gular pouch. Both species have white and gold wing panels. The Black crowned crane has red and white facial patches, while the Grey crowned crane has a white facial patch with a small red patch just below its golden crown. Both species have a luxurious velvet looking forehead.

In Zakouma you will see Black crowned cranes in their thousands, especially at Rigueik pan. They seem to congregate in the pan from mid-morning. The drying pan attracts thousands and thousands of birds from cranes to storks, herons, egrets, geese and ducks. Crowned cranes are omnivorous so must find abundant food in the pan and surrounding wetland.

“Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.” ~ Wayne Dyer

Zakouma’s drying pans and pools of water in the Salamat river attract thousands of Spurwing geese. This species is so-called due to its prominent carpal spur. The male differs from the female, not only in size, but also in having a larger red facial patch extending back from the red bill, and a knob at the base of the upper mandible.

A few Spurwing geese which had gathered at a pan close to Tinga camp. Interspersed in the multitude of spurwings where numerous White-faced whistling ducks and Knob-billed ducks. These types of congregations of birds around drying pans at the end of the dry season is a feature and one of the many attractions of Zakouma National Park.

“Living the life that you love and loving the life that you live in the truest demonstration of abundance.”~ Lisa Nichols

A typical scene around one of the many drying pools of water in the Salamat river. An abundance of Yellow-billed storks, Great, Intermediate and Little egrets, Grey and Black-headed herons, White-faced whistling ducks and Black-crowned night-herons, Hammerkops and Yellow-billed kites. In the background were two Kordofan giraffe crossing the shallow pan.

At Rigueik pan, one of the three major pans in Zakouma, you will see massive congregations of birdlife all mixed together. Large numbers of Black crowned cranes, Yellow-billed storks, White backed pelicans, Marabou storks, Spurwing geese and White-faced whistling ducks to name just a few.

“On this journey through nature’s Umwelten, our intuitions will be our biggest liabilities, and our imaginations will be our greatest assets.” ~ Ed Yong

A closer look at the density of White-backed pelicans, Marabou and Yellow-billed storks and Great egrets all mixed together. We could not get too close so had to use long focal length lenses which made focusing tricky as the morning heated up, creating the heat haze.

The Black-headed lapwing is commonly found in Zakouma. That said, we only twice saw a single Black-headed lapwing. The other lapwing species found in Zakouma are the Spur-winged, African wattled, White-headed and Long toed lapwing.

I was surprised and amused to see Helmeted guineafowl without the characteristic bone like casque on top of its head. The body plumage was very similar to its sub-equatorial cousins but the neck plumage was darker and although they had the light blue facial skin, it did not extend down the sides of the neck and it did not have the blue and red wattles extending from the lower mandible. This was another example of the similarity but with unique differences.

Sunbirds were not common in Zakouma but one sunbird we saw several times was the Beautiful sunbird. The individuals I saw appeared to be moulting into their breeding plumage. Although the individuals I saw were somewhat mottled, the male in full breeding plumage has a greenback and belly but his breast is a combination of red and yellow and he has a blue-purple necklace.

A mating pair of Hammerkops. This species was abundant around the pans and remaining pools of water in the Salamat river. Although we saw hundreds of Hammerkops in Zakouma we saw very few of their large nests.

A Lesser spotted eagle. We only saw a few of these migratory raptors which may have been on its way back to eastern Europe. When in flight, the wings are dark brown with the distinctive white tips to give the namesake “spotted” effect. The Lesser spotted eagle is mostly a solitary raptor, except for when in breeding season, when they travel around in pairs.

We saw many Spur-winged lapwings and Crowned lapwings but no Blacksmith lapwings.

A scene looking onto Rigueik pan. I have never seen so many Marabou storks in one place.

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

We saw a huge flock of Great white pelicans roosting in the Rigueik pan. There was plenty of activity with storks and pelicans flying in and out.

Our guide Doug MacDonald spent a couple of hours each night showing us the nightlife in Zakouma. The mammals such as servals, civets and White and Black tailed mongooses were easier to see than the nocturnal birds, This was a Long-tailed nightjar but you can also see the Plain and Standard-winged nightjar in the park.

A Greyish eagle-owl perched on a dead tree searching for prey. It looks similar to a Spotted eagle-owl but is smaller. The Verreaux’s eagle-owl is also found in Zakouma as are the African scops owl, Northern white-faced owl and Pel’s fishing owl. We heard the Scops at night but never saw the latter three species.

This is part one of a two part post on the birds we saw and photographed in Zakouma. What was so intriguing about going to a completely new park is that I did not know what to expect. While I could recognise many species almost all had a unique colour or shape variations. I have Charles Darwin’s ideas ringing in my head.

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” ~ Stephen Hawking

Apart from the newness, variety and number of birds what made our daily ventures into the Zakouma bush so fascinating is that Doug, in group conversations, would each day introduce a new idea which I had never thought about before. One such idea was the concept of tetrachomacy. Birds are tetrachromats, meaning they possess four types of cone cells in their retinas, allowing them to perceive a wider range of colours than humans who have trichromatic vision. This expanded color vision includes the ability to see ultraviolet light, which humans cannot. Those beings that are tetrachromatic can perceive an estimated 100 million colour variations. With normal colour vision, humans can see approximately one million different colours. Tetrachromacy amplifies the eye’s ability to distinguish between shades of colours.

“By giving in to our preconceptions, we miss what might be right in front of us. And sometimes what we miss is breathtaking.” ~ Ed Yong

Vision is complex, but the calculus of colour is strangely simple: Each cone confers the ability to distinguish around a hundred shades, so the total number of combinations is at least 100^3, or a million. Take one cone away — go from being what scientists call a trichromat to a dichromat — and the number of possible combinations drops a factor of 100, to 10,000. Almost all other mammals, including dogs and New World monkeys, are dichromats. The richness of the world we see is rivaled only by that of birds and some insects, which also perceive the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~ W.B. Yeats

One of the miracles of wild development is that nature will seek out, change and adapt to and make use of the earth’s free resources. In essence, tetrachromacy provides birds with a more complete and richer visual experience, enabling them to navigate their environment, forage for food, and engage in social interactions more effectively.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike