The life of a Cape Sugarbird.

A relaxing Sunday read about one of nature's wonders.

You will see the Cape Sugarbird and his wife (Promerops cafer), and then a female Southern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus), and finally a small baby Cape Robin-chat (Cossypha caffra).

I saw one last Spring season, and this one is still a juvenile. Something that we only found out lately is that the yellow spot above his beak is pollen, that he collects after he sticks his beak into the flowers. So yes, sugarbirds are also pollinators like many small birds.

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about the Cape Sugarbird.

The Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer) is one of the eight bird species endemic to the Fynbos biome of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The Cape sugarbird is a specialist nectar feeder when it comes to feeding off Proteaceae. Its long, sharp beak is used to reach the nectar of a variety of species of protea with its long brush-tipped tongue. The staple diet of this sugarbird is nectar; however, it will also eat spiders and insects. The characteristic strong winds in the Cape may make feeding off protea heads difficult, but the Cape sugarbird has adapted to this with the development of sharp claws.

Source

A rare specimen here, as its habitat was burnt down some years ago and now it has found this new spot. Once again, I have no hope of finding its nest, as I tried to last season.

Look, he popped down to come and have a look at me (3 shots).

And then he continued to eat on the Protea Pincushions, until his wife arrived.

There she was, and a real cute little missus.

Suddenly he moved into this bush, and he also moved around all over the place, but I kept an eye and followed him (2 shots).

This is a female Southern Double-collared Sunbird, and she seemed to have something in her beak. Maybe some fluffy stuff for her nest.

And finally, we have this little newborn, and it is a Cape Robin-chat.

I took a lot of photos of the birds here and will surely show you some shots in other posts, but I thought that this collection will interest you. The place is alive with birdsong and several bird species, and the red and yellow pincushion flowers draw many of them. The flowers all have nectar, and you would think only birds drink the nectar, but not so, as we have also seen and posted squirrels plucking the whole flower heads off to eat them, and even a field mouse enjoying the flowers. They are definitely not nectar eaters.

They say that this will be the worst El Nino weather system that we will have this year, and an article that I read recently was a lady wanting to hang her washing out on the lines when she encountered one of the most poisonous and deadly snakes sitting on the frame of the washing line. A snake catcher was called by the panicking lady, and he removed the snake. It was a Boomslang, which is very poisonous and whose bite can kill within minutes. We are expecting even more severe heat, and they reckon that it will encourage the snakes to enter suburbs in search of shade and water.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos and words by Zac Smith. No AI and no Photoshop. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Until next time, shalom!