Our daily routine of a 5am breakfast followed by a bumpy drive into Andasibe-Mantadia National Park continued this morning with the purpose of finding Scaly Ground Roller, a species that we had to see here. This time we walked along a rather undefined narrow trail into a different part of the forest and bumped into another group of birders already here. Not a good thing at any time, anywhere and I thought the worst. However, 5 minutes later we were all eyeballing a scorchingly sexy Scaly Ground Roller perched on a branch close to the floor, about 15 feet in front of us. Unbelievable! We felt very privileged to be able to watch this unbelievably intricately patterned species for at least 10 minutes as it moved around the leaf-covered forest floor and ultimately perched on another log a little further away than before. Wow!
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| Scaly Ground Roller |
Obviously everyone was elated with this and I always like to start the day nailing the first species, as it sets you up nicely for a good flow of birds. A short drive further into the national park took us to a previously walked trail where our excellent local guide, Thierry, spotted a Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher perched on a horizontal vine some distance away.
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| Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher |
Despite the leaf crunching from 8 pairs of feet the bird remained long enough for everyone to see it. And what a stunner. It flew to another perch slightly closer to us and we enjoyed seconds of this beautiful endemic. So, what better way to follow this than with a Pitta-like Ground Roller that entailed crossing a narrow stream on some carefully positioned logs and making our way through the forest to the area where it was calling.
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| Pitta-like Ground Roller |
Both Roberta and Rob spotted the bird flying and it was then located at some distance before more stalking and a return across the stream where we enjoyed fine and repeated views of another stunning endemic. A Malagasy Paradise-Flycatcher was also seen a few times whilst walking the trails here.
Leaving here we drove back along the road, pausing to watch Madagascan Buzzardsoaring in the blue sky before reaching the next trail. A shortish walk uphill, pausing to watch a pair of Blue Couas, took us to a territory of Henst’s Goshawk and after a little wait, the male flew in and landed in a large tree right in front of us.
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| Henst's Goshawk |
A Madagascan Cuckooshrikewas also seen at the same spot. Back at the waiting cars a Red-fronted Coua appeared and a pair of Souimanga Sunbirdswere also seen. So by mid-morning were finished in the forest and drove to Torotoro Fotsy marsh, arring around 1pm.
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| Red-fronted Coua |
Not a great time to bird an open marshy area but “he who dares wins Rodney”….. A perched Madagascan Cuckoo greeted our arrival and was swiftly followed by our picnic lunch. Afterwards we walked out into the marsh, which has been mainly turned into agricultural fields, with a much more reduced wetland habitat now. Despite this we easily saw Madagascan Cisticola, Madagascan Snipe and surprisingly a male Forest Fody at the edge of the marsh.
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| Madagascan Cisticola |
Now we were down to the tough stuff and it took quite a long time to locate Grey Emutail, which we did with resounding success. A Madagascan Railwas coaxed into view as well before we returned to the cars. The last stop of the day was close to the lodge where a Madagascan Flufftail was called in to round off another cracking day. And we returned to the lodge at 4pm for a bit of well-deserved time off…
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| Brown Emutail |
At close of play today we have seen 34 endemics, 3 breeding endemics and 19 regional endemics.
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