African Cuckoo-Hawk

Richard Trewby and I spent a relaxing few hours after dawn on Sunday walking and bird-watching on Gondokoro island, reached by canoe ferry from Juba old town by crossing a narrow channel.  It's a very large island in the White Nile and many people from the local Bari community live there.  A lot more indigenous trees remain than in Juba itself.  We saw a good range of species, including several that are not easy to track down elsewhere in the immediate area of Juba.  These included Northern Brownbul, White-browed Robin-Chat, African Paradise-flycatcher and Scarlet-chested Sunbird. Beautiful Sunbirds were everywhere, a few in breeding plumage, whilst Palaearctic migrants included two male Eurasian Golden Orioles, a Willow Warbler, a Spotted Flycatcher and several Eastern Olivaceous Warblers.  However, bird of the day was an adult African Cuckoo-Hawk, possibly only the second for South Sudan after the bird I saw on the rafting trip (see my first blog).  Reference to "Birds of the Horn of Africa" suggests that the bird is of the nominate subspecies.  Here's a photo - poor but shows the main features.

Adult African Cuckoo-Hawk

I had a sundowner by the White Nile in the evening, seeing little evidence of migration apart from Barn Swallows and Sand Martins, though an Osprey did move through diving unsuccessfully for fish.  As dusk fell a Spotted Eagle-Owl called, and using flash I photographed an immature Black Kite, a rare find so far among the hordes of Yellow-billed Kites......though perhaps for the very good reason that I don't spend much time around rubbish dumps.

Immature Black Kite