Bushcrows and Goodbyes

I've been gone from Ethiopia for more than three months now (yes, I know, this blog is once again grievously out-of-date), but I still look back on many parts of it fondly: the food, the landscapes, the fascinating history, and (of course) the birds. Aside from the fact it was my first-ever introduction to African birds, birding in Ethiopia has the ideal combination of being very easy and very rewarding, with lots of interesting and charismatic birds that are generally easy to find and approach. Hard to beat really. 

By the end of July, I'd seen almost all the Ethiopian endemic birds, and some more incredibly rare residents. However, with two days left in the country, I still had some of the best-looking and rarest of Ethiopian endemics left to see. We were in the town of Mega in Ethiopia's far south after an all-day drive the previous day, and the destination for the morning of July 31 was just a bit further south, on the cliffs that surround the town. Anywhere there's an exposed cliff-face in Ethiopia, you can bet that there will be a Francolin there, and this area was no exception: it is, in fact, one of the only known spots to see Black-fronted Francolin, a recent split from the Chestnut-breasted Francolin I'd seen early in the Bale Mountains. 

We arrived there just after sunrise, on a cold, rainy day. Nearly as soon as we got there, I heard the francolins calling from the cliff face. However, although we spent more than an hour standing below the cliff scanning the rocks in the drizzle, they never came into view, instead calling occasionally from deep within the bushes. Eventually it started raining hard enough that we had to run back to the car. Feeling a bit discouraged, we waited in the car until the rain let up a bit, then headed back to the cliff face for one last look. It was long past the time of morning when francolins are likely to be out in the open, so I wasn't very optimistic. Miraculously however, they started calling once again, and I spotted a single Black-fronted Francolin sitting out in the open! It called once then went back into the undergrowth, but I was able to get a few pictures of this uncommon and rarely-encountered endemic. 

Black-fronted Francolin!

With the francolin successfully seen, we headed north out of Mega and back towards the town of Soda where we had passed through the day before. The triangle of land between Mega, Soda, and the town of Yabello to the northwest seems just like any other area of scrubland and savanna in Southern Ethiopia, or many other parts of Africa for that matter. However, for two of Ethiopia's most sought-after endemic birds, there's something special about it, as it's the only place in the world where the Ethiopian Bushcrow and White-tailed Swallow can be seen. Both corvids and swallows tend to be adaptable habitat generalists so it was a bit of a mystery as to why they were found only within this tiny area. Recent research has shown that, in the case of the bushcrow at least, it's because this area is slightly cooler than its surroundings, providing a more comfortable climate. Unfortunately, with decades or centuries of climate change ahead of us, things don't look optimistic for the region's uncomfortable habitability. 

We stopped just after the turnoff to Soda and walked into a field where we had spotted a flock of birds feeding on the ground. Almost immediately I saw several White-tailed Swallows swooping around above our heads, and one of them even perched briefly for a rare picture. Feeding on the ground were Grey-capped Social Weavers and a Nubian Woodpecker, but I was soon distracted by a flock of Ethiopian Bushcrows! I got to watch them for nearly half an hour as they stalked through the fields,  scratching on the ground turning over cow patties in search of insects. They're certainly one of the most unique and sought-after Ethiopian endemics, perhaps second only to the Ethiopian Wolf, so it was a huge treat to finally see them on nearly my last day in the country. 

White-tailed Swallow

Grey-capped Social Weaver

Nubian Woodpecker

Ethiopian Bushcrow!

In the same area was a pair of calling D'Arnaud's Barbets, looking like a dull version of Red-and-yellow Barbet, and a pair of hulking Abyssinian Ground Hornbills.

D'Arnaud's Barbets

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill

We continued a bit longer on the road towards Soda, stopping at a nondescript-looking corral of cattle pasture. This proved to somehow be an excellent place for cisticolas, and I was able to see four (!) species of cisticola within a 10 square meter area: Boran Cisticola, Ashy Cisticola, Desert Cisticola, and Tiny Cisticola, the latter three of which were lifers for me. I'd done rather poorly on cisticolas during my visits to Awash National Park, supposedly a good place for them, so this was nice compensation. There was also a flock of rufous-colored Shelley's Sparrows, a calling White-browed Coucal, a beautiful range-restricted Hunter's Sunbird, and a distant Bateleur doing some aerial antics. 

White-browed Coucal

Ashy Cisticola- I was extremely confused at first by the facial pattern on this bird, until I realized looking at pictures that it had a pair of ticks on its cheek.

Boran Cisticola

Hunter's Sunbird

Shelley's Sparrow

After a surprisingly successful cleanup of cisticolas, we continued further into the savanna, entering an open, grassy plain dotted with acacias and termite mounds. On top of one of those termite mounds I spotted a distant Taita Fiscal, a very close relative of Somali Fiscal (arguably not even a different species) and the only one of my whole trip. We got out of the car to search for another Horn of Africa specialty: Somali Courser, part of a strange and beautiful family of mainly land-based shorebirds. It took a good half hour of walking around in the heat before we finally spotted a pair of coursers stalking through the grass, bolder than the other coursers I'd seen before. In the same area was a White-bellied Canary, a Brubru, and another small group of Shelley's Sparrows. I also came across a fascinating symbiotic relationship I'd only seen before in nature documentaries: acrobat ants (Crematogaster sp.) building a nest in the bulbous spikes of a Whistling Thorn tree. The tree provides a spot for the ants to build their nests, while the ants will attack large herbivores that try to eat the tree's leaves.

Somali Coursers

Brubru

Acrobat ant nesting in a Whistling Thorn

Some kind of moth... 

Barleria delamarei

We continued back toward the main paved road, but stopped for another flock of beautiful Ethiopian Bushcrows and a Short-tailed Lark. Shortly after, we stopped once more for a solitary Somali Ostrich stalking across the plains. Everyone knows ostriches are big, but it's easy to forget how utterly huge they really are until you see one in real life.

Ethiopian Bushcrow

Somali Ostrich

We finally returned to the main, paved road and continued northwestwards toward the town of Yabello. We stopped in several spots along the way, of course, since there were still birds to see. The first place we stopped was an area Mesfin said was good for Scaly Chatterer and Pearl-spotted Owlet. I didn't see either of those; in fact the only noteworthy thing was a swarm of colorful but menacing-looking Phymateus aegrotus, a type of locust.

A swarm of Phymateus aegrotus

The next stop also didn't have any Scaly Chatterers, but it did have a small group of Rufous Chatterers, and even better a pair of tiny but fierce Pearl-spotted Owlets calling from inside an acacia tree! It took some effort to finally get a decent view, but I was able to get a proper view and some decent pictures of this adorable owl, one of most hoped-for Ethiopian birds.

Pearl-spotted Owlet

Rufous Chatterer

The next stop was a semi-enclosed grazing area near to the road with lots of low-lying shrubbery and some bored-looking cows. Almost as soon as I got out of the car I saw a few Scaly Chatterers peeking out from a shrub, followed closely by a pair of beautiful Purple Grenadiers. Walking around a little bit more, I saw a very cute Tiny Cisticola, a Foxy Lark, and another White-bellied Canary. It look lots of walking around a bush in a wide circle before I was able to finally get a decent look at a Three-streaked Tchagra, a localized and extremely skulking shrike. 

Scaly Chatterer

Purple Grenadier

Tiny Cisticola

White-bellied Canary

Golden Arab Tip (Colotis chrysonome) 

Thorn Apple (Solanum incanum), the wild ancestor of the eggplant!

Red-legged Golden Orb-weaver Spider (Trichonephila sumptuosa)

Nearer to Yabello, we stopped near the famous "Elephant Rock", a prominent rock formation known among birders as a good birding stop. It did indeed prove to be possibly the birdiest place I visited that day- while the only lifer I saw was a briefly-glimpsed Banded Parisoma, I got fantastic views of many of my favorite resident birds: Golden-breasted Starlings, a very bold Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin, Somali Bunting, Rosy-patched Bush-shrike, Three-streaked Tchagra, and a bonus Unstriped Ground Squirrel.

Golden-breasted Starling

Mouse-colored Penduline-tit

Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin

Somali Bunting

Three-streaked Tchagra

Eurasian Hoopoe

Rosy-patched Bush-shrike

Unstriped Ground Squirrel

The landscape around Elephant Rock

We stopped once more before arriving in Yabello, mainly so Mesfin could fix the car's engine. While he did that, I walked a ways down the road in search of some birds. It was mostly quiet but for a Buff-crested Bustard as I got out of the car, but after a while I got lucky with a twofer of male whydahs in spectacular breeding plumage: Straw-tailed Whydah and Long-tailed Paradise Whydah. 

Buff-crested Bustard

Long-tailed Paradise Whydah

Slant-faced grasshopper (Truxalis sp.)

We arrived that evening in the town of Yabello after one of the longest but most satisfying days of birding I'd had that summer. We stayed in the decent but grievously overpriced Yabello Hotel, then continued northwards the next day. It was, unfortunately, mostly a day of driving, as I was flying out from Addis the afternoon of August 2 and we had about half of Ethiopia to traverse before then. We arrived in the pleasant city of Hawassa, on the shores of the eponymous Lake Awassa, late in the afternoon, and had a little bit of time for birds before it got dark. Hawassa is known for having lots of good birding spots around it, including the marshes along the lakeshore and the forest areas of Wondo Genet, but unfortunately I really only had time for a walk along the shore of Lake Awassa near our hotel. 

As it happens, Lake Awassa is a fantastic spot for birding even if one has limited time. Anyone who's birded in a city will know what I mean when I say that it's extremely weird to have jacanas, crakes, and other waterfowl practically running across your feet within the bounds of a major city, but, well, Ethiopia is different. The Awassa Lake Promenade held many of the usual African waterfowl, including African Jacanas, Black Crakes, African Sea-eagles, and Reed and Great Cormorants, but there were some nice new birds as well, including Lesser Swamp Warblers, White-browed Robin-chats, and African Pygmy Geese, possibly the best-looking of the pygmy geese. 

Bronze Mannikin

Lesser Swamp Warbler

African Pygmy Gose

White-browed Robin-chat

Grosbeak Weaver

Baglafecht Weaver

The next morning was my last morning in Ethiopia(!), so of course I wanted to spend as much of it as I could birding. I woke up at sunrise, and headed out once again to the promenade for a final hour of birding. The morning light was beautiful, and the birds were active and feeding out in the open, with much better views of the best birds I'd seen the previous evening, plus a last-minute lifer in the form of an African Swamphen. I looked around in the hotel grounds for African Spotted Creeper, supposedly a reliable bird there, but didn't find any. The local Guereza Colobus on the other hand were fun to watch.

African Jacana

Black Crake

African Fish Eagle

Red-billed Quelea

Lesser Swamp Warbler 

Great Cormorant

African Swamphen

Guereza Colobus

Pseudagrion niloticum

All too soon, I had to pack my things into the car, and we departed Hawassa for the last time and headed north towards Addis. With my flight that afternoon and traffic and construction slowing us down, there wasn't time for any lengthy birding stops as I'd hoped there would be. There was time for just one stop: a quick roadside scan of the marshes near Lake Koka that produced a distant but beautiful pair of Black Crowned-cranes, a spectacular bird I'd dreamed of seeing in the wild since I was young. Not a bad bird for my last lifer in Ethiopia!

Black Crowned-cranes

I arrived to the airport with just enough time to check my baggage and check in for my flight, after saying goodbye to Mesfin, my friend and birding companion for much of my summer in Ethiopia. If anyone is in need of a driver or guide for Ethiopia, I can highly recommend him as someone who's extremely friendly, laid-back, and knows the local birds and birding sites (as well as other attractions) like few others do. 

I finished my summer in Ethiopia having seen 427 species of birds in the country, not a bad total for about 20 full days of birding (not including casual office birding) in the middle of the summer. I managed to see every Ethiopian endemic bird, as well as almost all of the possible near-endemics and specialties, with the annoying exception of Red-billed Pytilia. I'm sure I'll be back sooner rather than later- not only for the damn pytilia, but also because Ethiopia has so much else going for it. There are many open questions about how national politics and the economy will develop over the coming years, but it certainly earns its place in my book as one of the most beautiful, diverse and interesting countries I've ever been to.