5th December
Blimey this is turning out to be a slog. I’ve been out and about on my bike but barely seen any wildlife. I’m desperately not trying to write about a species on the main list for two days running which doesn’t help matters. I’ve literally sat here for ten minutes before writing this sentence racking my brains for an idea. I think I have one. My parents have got into the habit of watching live bird-feeder cams (I quite like them too for relaxation, I wrote about a species based on a sighting on a cam in January) and a really great one is this one: https://youtu.be/mrvYtcCqVAY which is from Pretoria in South Africa. So today’s species is from there.
Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus (Statius Müller, 1776)
As far as I can tell and with a little help from Wikipedia (and the genus name ‘Passer’ is a giveaway this sparrow is closely related to the UK native House Sparrow which I get in my garden. The males are a lot more spectacular with a black face surrounded by a border of pale cream colour, and a black bib on its breast. The rest of its plumage is similar to a male house sparrow. The females are a lot more drab. There we are, I’ve never seen one in real life, nor do I expect to see one any time soon bar an unexpected trip to South Africa, but that’s my 5th species. Can’t promise I’ll be back to my own sitings tomorrow!
Advent species so far:
- 1st: Goosander Mergus merganser
- 2nd: December Moth Poecilocampa populi
- 3rd: Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum
- 4th Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
- 5th Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus
A Species a Day 