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birds of cape town |
Introduced
Birds of Cape Town:
The
Western Cape has the dubious distinction of hosting the country’s
greatest diversity of alien bird species. The ‘usual’
ones that have colonized much of the world (such as House Sparrow,
Feral Pigeon and European Starling) are of course present, and
there is an additional assortment of others that have become
heavily twitched by list-conscious South African birders. Of
these, Mute Swan has become locally extinct (although a wandering
individual is occasionally seen at Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary
on the R44 in Strand), House Crow (now distressingly well-established
on the Cape Flats: look out for it on the N2 near the airport
turn-off), Peafowl, Chukar Partridge (opposite) and Chaffinch.
The latter is the only surviving relic of Cecil John Rhodes’s
1898 bout of introductions, part of a broader attempt to transform
the Cape Peninsula into a gentle English landscape. Among his
other, less successful importations were Rook, Song Thrush and
Blackbird. The Chaffinch, however, is peculiar in that it has
neither gone extinct, nor become invasive, but remains peacefully
ensconced in densely planted areas on the eastern slopes of
Table Mountain. It is fairly common, although rather elusive
and best lured down from the tree-tops by playback. Good areas
to look (and listen) for it are Tokai (p.20) and the Greenbelts
(p.19). Mallard is still fortunately fairly scarce, and regular
reports of hybridization with Yellow-billed Duck are disturbing.
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Claire Spottiswoode, Callan Cohen, Peter Ryan and Eve Holloway
of Birding Africa and the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African
Ornithology.
Please do not use any text, images or content from this site without
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© Birding Africa 1997-2003 info@capebirdingroute.org
21 Newlands Road, Claremont, 7708, Cape Town, South Africa
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