Sightings In The Subregion: Mid-January To Mid-March 2021

After a midsummer that was so busy with rarities, one might have thought that things would calm down somewhat, but the later part of the season continued to deliver a dazzling list of mouthwatering records. Twitchers were kept fully entertained and on their toes!

- Trevor Hardaker

HEADLINE NEWS

With so many great birds being reported, it is difficult to know where to start, but new species for southern Africa – and indeed Africa – obviously deserve line honours. Many twitchers were in utter disbelief on 30 January when news came through of the subregion’s first ever Crested Honey Buzzard found in Somerset West. Initially seen soaring over Lourensford Estate, the bird was relocated later that same day in the Spanish Farm area. It remained vaguely reliable there, especially in the late afternoons, and many birders managed to see it. There were some initial concerns that it might be a hybrid but, after consulting with a number of the world’s raptor experts, the consensus reached was that it was a pure bird and apparently a juvenile in its second calendar year. (Read more about this bird in the article ‘Mixed messages’, starting on page 26.) There are a handful of previous records of Crested Honey Buzzard in sub-Saharan Africa, but it remains a very rare bird on the continent. It was interesting that another individual, an adult male, was seen in Kenya shortly after the local bird was found.