The Thicknee

Allow me to introduce Buhrinus capensis, or the spotted thicknee:

These nocturnal birds have been hanging around our yard a lot this past while, this picture was taken moments after Talos had disturbed this lovely specimen from rest.

These birds are not rare, if you live in South Africa, chances are you've been closer to one of these than you realise. They're not small either, standing well over 40 cms tall. Much taller than the very startled little pug that hid behind me as I took the picture.

They're quite splendid, though. Interesting, too, look at the huge eye for finding food hidden even better than the thicknee itself in the grass. At night, no less!

This is but one of a myriad of local species of birds, some quite rare (wattled plovers, for instance), but most, really common, that you can find in your back garden. In the case of the thicknee, it has camouflage on its side - if this guy was sitting still I wouldn't have noticed it. The pug, with her much keener senses, definitely did not. In many cases, though, our birds are riotously colourful.

Why is it then, that our landlord felt the need to point out a perfectly ordinary, yet somehow freed from the cage it should be occupying, parakeet? No other bird seems to arouse his curiosity, in fact, he seemed not to notice them at all. But this man made creation was worth waking us up at seven on a Saturday.  I can't help but be convinced that this is the case for most of my fellow South Africans.

I'm a keen bird watcher, as you may have figured out. It seems to me such a pity that so few people notice our natural feathered splendour. I mean, have you seen a thicknee?