Smew

The Smew (Mergellus albellus) is a medium-sized bird in the wild duck family. It is a diving duck. It is a sea duck, living in marine (saltwater) locations, but it breeds in freshwater lakes. It is also known as the Redhead Smew and the White Nun. It is related to the Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). 

The male and female Smew look different. The male Smew is mostly white, with a black patch around his eye, a black nape, white crest feathers, and a grey rump and sides, with two fine black lines on each side of his chest. Its beak is grey. Its legs and webbed feet are grey.

The female has a rufous-brown (red-brown) head, nape and neck, a white throat and white cheeks, with grey upperparts and a mottled-grey chest. She has brown eyes, grey beak, grey legs, and grey webbed feet. Both the male and the female have a beak with a hooked tip. 

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Lanner Falcon

The Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus biarmicus) is a medium-sized bird. It is a raptor, a bird of prey.

The Lanner Falcon has grey-brown feathers on upperparts, streaked with white throughout its underparts. It has a rufous (red-brown) crown and back of neck, with a white throat. It has black-brown patches on its cheeks – a bit like a moustache. It has yellow legs with short claws, and large strong toes.

It has a short, hooked pale beak with a dark-grey tip and a white cere. The eyes are distinctive with a large, round, black pupil and an almond-shaped blue-grey to pale-yellow eye-ring. Juveniles have blue-grey eye-rings, and adults have pale-yellow eye-rings.

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Speckled Pigeon

The Speckled Pigeon (Columba guinea) is also called the African Rock Pigeon or the Guinea Pigeon in the Columbidae family . It is a common medium-sized African bird.

The Speckled Pigeon has rufous (red-brown) wings and back. Its wings are speckled with white spots. Its upperparts and underparts are blue-grey. Its head is grey with red patches around its eyes. Its neck is brownish, streaked with white. Its beak is pale and its legs are red.

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African Red-Rumped Swallow

The Red-Rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica) is a small bird from Europe, Asia, and Africa. The African Red-Rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica emini) is from Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Unlike the European swallows, which are migratory, the African Red-Rumped Swallows are resident (they do not fly to another location in winter).

The Red-Rumped Swallow is a blue-black with a rufous (red-brown) rump with rufous patches on the sides of its head. It has rufous underparts with a pale throat. Its tail is plain and forked. It has dark eyes, a small grey beak, and pink-grey legs.

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Rufous-Naped Lark

The Rufous-Naped Lark (Mirafra africana) is a short-tailed bird from Africa.

The Rufous-Naped Lark has rufous (red-brown) wings and back of neck. Its body is brown with contrasting dark streaks. It has a cream-coloured underbelly. It eyes are hazel brown with a creamy-buff eyebrow. Its beak is blackish to pinkish with a straight lower beak, and longish, curved upper beak. Its tail is dark-brown. Its feet are pink to pink-brown.

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Kenyan Red-Capped Lark

The Kenyan Red-Capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea williamsi) is a small African songbird. The African Red-Capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea) is found in southern and eastern Africa, with the Kenyan Red-Capped Lark localized to western Kenya (Calandrella cinerea saturatior) and central Kenya (Calandrella cinerea williamsi).

The Red-Capped Lark is streaky grey-brown with a rufous (red-brown) cap. It has white underparts and red shoulders. Young larks lack the red cap and red shoulders.

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CREATURE FEATURE: Augur Buzzard

The Augur Buzzard (Buteo augur) is an African raptor; a bird of prey.

The Augur Buzzard has black upperparts with a rufous (red-brown) tail. Its flight feathers are black and off-white (with black bars, or bands). The throat is mainly white, and the underparts and underwings are white. It has a grey beak with a yellowish cere. Its eyes are black. Its legs are creamy-yellow.

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Eastern Spinebill

The Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) is an Australian honeyeater, a small bird that is also called the Spine-Billed Honeyeater.

The Eastern Spinebill has a black head, white throat with a rufous (red-brown) patch, a brownish nape, a grey-brown back, and pale cinnamon underparts. It has a dark tail tipped with white. It has a long, thin down-curved black beak. It has red eyes.

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White-Browed Coucal

The White-Browed Coucal (Centropus superciliosus) is a common sub-Saharan African cuckoo. It is also called the Lark-Heeled Cuckoo.

The White-Browed Coucal has a black crown and back of the neck, a white supercilium (eyebrow line), a rufous (red-brown) back, chestnut wings, a black rump, and a glossy black-green tail with a white tip. Its underparts are creamy-white. It has red eyes, a black beak, and grey-black legs and feet.

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CREATURE FEATURE: Lilac-Breasted Roller

The Lilac-Breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus caudatus) is an east African bird found from the Red Sea to southern Africa, and most abundant in the grasslands of Kenya.

Lilac-Breasted Rollers have bright plumage (feathers), with a lilac throat that deepens into a darker lilac breast. The crown to mantle is olive, and the cheeks and ear coverts are a lilac-rufous (reddish-brown). They have long black and blue tail feathers.

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