Purple-crested Turaco (Lourie)

While growing up I never saw louries (turacos) in our garden, but over time the bird populations changed and for about the last ten years I lived there Purple-crested Turacos (Tauraco porphyreolophus) often visited our garden.  I saw two together fairly often so there was at least a pair of them.

Their call is an unmistakable repeated kok-kok-kok sound which my wife describes as laughing. They are shy and fly from tree-to-tree, hopping between the branches, mostly hidden in the foliage. When they fly their crimson red flight feathers are dazzling.

With their loud call you are left in no doubt about where they are. However trying to see them for a good photograph with hopefully all of the bird and not in dark shade drove me crazy. I finally got some decent pictures when one stayed out in the open on an old avocado pear tree for a moment, rather than buried in our enormous Forest Natal Mahogany Tree (Trichilia dregeana).

Helmeted Guineafowl

Helmeted Guineafowls (Numida meleagris) are common in South Africa, this particular one photographed, like the previous few posts, in the West Coast National Park. I love their spotty plumage.

Origin of the names

 

The origin of the name guineafowl and it's species name meleagris is interesting.

The guineafowl was domesticated in classical times in Greece and were called melanargis meaning black & silver which was corrupted to meleagris.

They were distributed throughout the Roman Empire as were the Moroccan Guineafowl subspecies (N. m. sabyi). The Romans also called the former species meleagris and the latter the numidian fowl or hen. N. m sabyi has possibly been extinct since the 1950s.

Both disappeared from Europe after the Roman Empire declined. Guineafowls were rediscovered by the Portuguese explorers on the west coast of Africa in the late 16th century which is where they get their modern common name guineafowl

The naming of the wild turkey from North America (Meleagris gallopavo) intertwined with the guineafowl (Numida meleagris) but from what I've read it seems rather murky with multiple theories.

They both share the word meleagris, one as its genus the other as its species. The guneafowl obviously had that name first, but the puzzle is why did the turkey get it too. One theory is that they appeared in the European market at around the same time with resulting confusion.

While the scientific name link is obvious, the common name turkey doesn't escape either.

One theory is that merchants from the Ottoman Empire traded in guineafowl and that the birds got a nickname of turkey. Settlers in North America saw what seemed to be similar birds and then called them turkeys. Another theory is that merchants from the East also sold turkeys later... A further theory on Wikipedia is that they were named turkeys just because it was an exotic place like Guinea which seems unlikely, but I suppose weirder name choices have been made with less basis.

References

Turkey name theories:

1. The flight of the turkey, The Economist, 20th December 2014
2. Guinea Fowl, Roy Crawford in Poultry Breeding and Genetics Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990
3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97541602
4. Helmeted Guineafowls, Wikipedia
5. Wild Turkey, Wikipedia

Other:

1. Guinea Fowl, Roy Crawford in Poultry Breeding and Genetics Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990
2. Extinct Birds, Julian P. Hume, Michael Walters, 19 Feb 2012
3. Helmeted Guineafowls, Wikipedia
4. BirdLife International, Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris

Yellow Bishop

Here is another bird photographed in the West Coast National Park in South Africa. It is a Yellow Bishop (Euplectes capensis) which is a species of weaver (Ploceidae).

Bokmakierie

A Bokmakierie (Telophorus zeylonus) in the West Coast National Park with an insect. Bokmakieries are a species of bushshrike endemic to Southern Africa.

The West Coast National Park is a very beautiful nature reserve about an hour's drive from Cape Town. It borders Langabaan Lagoon on the one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. The best time to visit is in August or September when the flowers are in full bloom and the private land north of the reserve is opened for visitors.

Praying Mantis

This impressive praying mantis was hanging onto the top of a window-frame. I'm not sure what it is but it looks like one of the African Stick Mantis species (Hoplocorypha)

There are more than 200 species of mantis in sub-Saharan Africa.

Common Hairtail Butterfly

I photographed this Common Hairtail butterfly (Anthene definita definita) drinking water and minerals from the mud on a farm road in the Karkloof Mountains. Its wingspan is between 25-28mm.

A good tip I learn't when I was a kid photographing my dog was to always photograph animals at their level -- even if that sometimes means lying down in the mud in a tractor rut, or in the case of my dog being pounced upon and having my face licked.

Phantom Flutterer

The Phantom Flutterer (Rhyothemis semihyalina) is a very beautiful dragonfly that occurs throughout Africa, the Indian Ocean islands, part of the Middle-East and part of southern Asia.

The iridescent purple is fantastic - the close-up photograph beneath this one shows it better although a photo doesn't do it enough justice. I've rarely seen this dragonfly but I was lucky enough to photograph this one right next to my front door. I can sprint for a camera quite fast!