bird

Meet the colourful and comical birds of Africa

As well as photographing elephants, lions, leopards, cheetah and baboons during my recent trip to Africa, I also managed to take a few shots of the amazing birdlife from honking hornbills to grumpy vultures. In fact the very first photograph I took in Africa was of a yellow weaver bird on a fence. We were having breakfast at the Ole Sereni hotel in Nairobi en route to Diani for the first leg of our travels.  The weaver suddenly hopped onto the fence and kindly stood there in perfect profile while staring out at the national game reserve. I couldn’t have asked for a better photographic subject! Most[…]

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Louis the Tui: The tale of an infatuated noisy New Zealand bird

This is Louis the Tui. He followed me all over my parents’ property in rural Taranaki (Naki), New Zealand last Xmas, singing, grunting, wheezing, coughing and popping like a mechanical toy (Tui’s have a very active and noisy vocal range!). At one stage he even landed on the grass near to where I was sitting which is the first time I’ve ever seen a Tui on the ground. My parents were convinced that Louis was threatened by my Nikon camera and large zoom lens possibly thinking it was another Tui invading his space. I like to think he was in love with me and[…]

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