For long-tailed widowbird, blue crane and turacos it would be probably worth going back to South Africa to take better pictures. Long-tailed widowbirds males in the mating season have disproportionately long tail feathers. They are so extremely long compared to the rest of its body, that they seem to be apparently inconvenient in flight. Fortunately, in the area most frequently seen bird predators were amur falcons, mostly interested in large insects. Otherwise the long-tailed widowbird would be an easy prey. It is interesting that they often sat on a barbed wire fences and never became entangled with their tail in the blade wire while taking-off. Long-tailed widowbirds are very territorial and could be seen trying to chase away the meadows the other birds which were feeding there. They were running them on the ground and raced them in the air. Shooting long-tailed widowbirds is not easy. They always kept quite a considerable distance, but it happened that slowly approaching the bird when it was feeding we could come closer and then was the short moment when my reflexes and speed of autofocus was challenged. Sometimes I was able to take a satisfactory photos out of the car. As it works in nature photography, it is a case of many, many attempts until such an individual is found that is not skittish at all but even intrigued by our presence, thus good pictures might happen. So it was with the turaco and also I was lucky with the long-tailed widowbird. Although I assessed the gallery as the most interesting (I managed to record a sound as well), as I recall its flight I regret not devoting more time to the bird – it is amazing and difficult to capture. The difficulty relates to its dynamic behavior and its coloration. Only cloudy days and subdued light, and at the same time a sufficient amount of light (short times) gave a chance to take good pictures. A long-tailed widowbirds were not rare. We saw them on the outskirts of Johannesburg, and they appeared along several-kilometers route to Wakkerstroom. I hope that these few images you can see in the gallery show the charm of this bird, although it occurs to me more and more often that I think about filming...

RPA -język angielski

Republic of South Africa 02/2017 - introductory text - Livingstone's turaco
Birds-new galleries:
1.Livingstone's turaco(T,V),2.Red-billed oxpecker(T,V).3.Long-tailed widowbird (T,V),4.Cape Glossy-Starling.5.Grosbeak Weaver (T,V).6.Trumpeter Hornbill (T,V),7.Fork-tailed Drongo.8.Rufous-chested Swallow (T).9.Long-tailed Cormorant.10. Burchell's Coucal (T,V).11.Water Thick-knee (T).12.Spotted Thick-knee (T).13.African Swamphen.14. Great White Pelican.15.African Pied Wagtail (T,V).16.Crested Guineafowl (V).17.Three-banded Plover (T).18.White-fronted Plover (T).19.Pin-tailed Whydah.20.Southern Red Bishop (T,V).21.Tawny-flanked Prinia.22.Forest Weaver (T).23.Cape Weaver (T).24.Bald ibis (T). 25.African Fish Eagle,26.Dark-capped Bulbul,27.Sombre Greenbul,28.African Pied Starling,29.Black-bellied Glossy-Starling,30.Woolly-necked Stork (T).31.Blacksmith Lapwing,32.Black-headed Heron,33.Goliath Heron (T),34.Red-winged Starling,35.Yellow-billed Stork (T).36.Blue Bustard (T).37.White-faced Whistling Duck,38.Perrin's Bushshrike (V),39.Natal Francolin (T),40.Speckled Pigeon,41.Lesser Striped-Swallow, 42.Greater Striped-Swallow(V),43.Yellow-billed Duck,44.Yellow-billed Kite,45.South African Shelduck (V),46.African Stonechat,47.Cape Canary,48.Black Cuckooshrike,49.Grey Crowned-Crane (T),50.Blue Crane (T),51.Crowned Hornbill (T),52.Wahlberg's Eagle,53. Palm-nut Vulture,54.Pied Kingfisher,55.Hamerkop,56.Orange River white-eye,57.Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove,58.Southern Black-Flycatcher,59.Malachite Sunbird,60.Black-backed Puffback,61.African Golden-Weaver,62.African Jacana (V),63.African harrier-hawk.64.African Firefinch,65.Crested Barbet,66.Wailing Cisticola,67.Brown-crowned Tchagra,68.Black-winged Lapwing,69.Wattled Lapwing,70.Black Heron,71.Red-faced Mousebird,72.Speckled Mousebird,73. African Hoopoe,74.Bokmakierie Bushshrike,75.Crested Francolin (T),76.Brown Snake-Eagle,77.Spur-winged Goose,78.Gray Go-away-bird, 79.Sacred Ibis(T,V),80.Wire-tailed Swallow,81.Rufous-necked Wryneck,82.Brown-hooded Kingfisher,83.Woodland Kingfisher,84.Striped Kingfisher,85.Red-knobbed Coot,86.Blue-cheeked Bee-eater(T),87.Little Bee-eater (T),88.African Darter,89.Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (T,V),90.Kittlitz's plover (T),91.Caspian Tern,92.White-backed Vulture,93.Red-billed Teal, 94.Purple-crested Turaco (V),95.Red-billed Quelea,96.African Yellow White-eye,97.Black-collared Barbet,98.Mocking Cliff-Chat,99.Southern Anteater-Chat,100.African Paradise-Flycatcher,101.Ring-necked Dove,102.Golden-breasted Bunting,103.Yellow-crowned Bishop,104.Yellow-throated Petronia, 105.Yellow-bellied Greenbul,106.Rattling Cisticola (V).107.White-throated Swallow.108.Red-eyed Dove.109.White-eared Barbet. 110. Plain Martin,111.Banded Martin,112.Red-backed Scrub-Robin (V),113.Southern Fiscal,114.Gray-winged Francolin (T),115.Acacia Pied Barbet,116.Glossy Ibis (T),117.Buff-streaked Bushchat,118.African Openbill (T),119.Chinspot Batis,120. Bateleur (T),121.Dideric Cuckoo,122.Yellow-fronted Canary,123.Malachite Kingfisher,124.Scarlet-chested Sunbird,125.Orange-throated Longclaw,126.Yellow-throated Longclaw,127.African Green-Pigeon,128.Cape Bunting,129.Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird,130.Variable Indigobird,131.Fan-tailed Widowbird,132.Orange Weaver,133.Long-crested Eagle,134.Cape Crow (V),135.Southern Gray-headed Sparrow,136.Cape Sparrow,137. Helmed Guineafowl.138.Green-backed Camaroptera.139.Violet-backed Starling.140 Black-bellied Glossy-Starling.
MAMMALS NEW GALLERIES: 1.Southern giraffe.2Burchell's zebra.3.Nyala.4.White rhinoceros.5.Chacma baboon.6.African Buffalo.7.Wildebeests.8.Common warthog.9.Waterbuck.10. Bushbuck.11.Vervet monkey.12.Banded mongoose.13.Impala.
REPTILIES - NEV GALLERIES: 1.Nile crocodile.2.Leopard tortoise.3.Serrated Hinged Terrapin.4.Flap-necked chameleon.
INSECT : 1. Elegant Grasshopper. 2.Plum dung beetle, and changes in the gallery of butterflies, odonata and other insects.
CHANGES IN BIRDS GALLERIES : 1.European roller (T).2 Black-winged kite.3.Amur falcon (T).4.Egyptian goose(T).5.Red-backed shrike (T).6.Hadeda ibis (T).7.Llittle egret.8.Cattle egret.9.Barn swallow.10.Squacco heron.11.Zitting cisticola (T).12.Common moorhen.13. Steppe buzzard (T).14.Sanderling (T ).15.Purple heron.16.European Bee-eater.17.Common tern. 18.Laughing Dove.19.White stork.
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