Mystery Bird photographed high in the Champagne Valley in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: James Borrell, 5 November 2011 (with permission) [velociraptorize].
Cannon 220D with a Canon EF 75-300mm lens / 1:4-5.6UV filter
This huge South African mystery bird has an enormous range, but it is found only in special places within that range. Can you explain why? Can you identify this bird's taxonomic family and species?
About the Daily Mystery Bird:
The Rules:
1. Keep in mind that people live in zillions of different time zones around the globe, and some people are following on their mobile phones. So let everyone play the game. Wait to identify the bird until 24 to 36 hours after it's been published.
2. If you know the bird's identity, provide subtle hints to let others know that you know. Your hints may be helpful as small clues to less experienced players.
3. Describe the key field marks that distinguish this species from any similar ones.
4. Comments that spoil others' enjoyment may be deleted.
The Game:
1. This is meant to be a learning experience where together we learn a few things about birds and about the process of identifying them (and maybe about ourselves, too).
2. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation or ethics.
3. Thoughtful comments will add to everyone's enjoyment, and will keep the suspense going until the next teaser is published. Interesting snippets may add to the knowledge of all.
4. Each bird species will be demystified approximately 48 hours after publication.
You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.
If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative international audience here at The Guardian, feel free to contact me to learn more.
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Comments
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7 January 2012 5:47PM
If I've got this correct, it has a specialised diet.
7 January 2012 5:48PM
OK someone has to go first, and it IS well over an hour since posting ...
Could this be an Average Sex Lure?
Restricted by hyraxes?
7 January 2012 5:52PM
Phew! I wasn't first after all!
7 January 2012 6:11PM
Ooh,err! Sounds painful!
7 January 2012 6:35PM
Ever sexual rage.
7 January 2012 6:47PM
Oddly named 'white cross' eagle in one of South Africa's languages. Something you really only see from above
7 January 2012 8:48PM
Usually (~90% of the time) more painful for the hyraxes!
Meinertzhagen says of this species: "... one of the finest of his kind both in looks, flight and habit ... is fearless in pursuit of food ... hyrax is the staple diet but animals as large as baboon and leopard have been attacked. They have been known to knock klipspringer and small antelope with their wings when caught on steep slopes." He goes on the describe witnessing a lethal attack on a litter of young warthog, and how "a few years ago" a pekinese dog strayed "and was never seen again." The warthog event is immortalized in a painting by George Lodge.
7 January 2012 11:15PM
Hello, all! I've been nodding in and out here without commenting much lately. After yesterday's discussion on timing for the local experts to make their IDs, I thought that I should post to let you know that I *am* stopping by regularly, but that I have not been posting IDs much for a couple reasons:
I am on the east coast of North America and have the knowledge to ID our local birds (OK, I'm also urban, so that's mostly starlings and english sparrows :-) well and near instantly. I have guides that allow me to research and ID other North American birds. I used to do that fairly regularly, but I've gotten busier during the day over the last couple months. Now I tend to stop by in the late evening and by then the mystery has always been solved; all I could do was add a "metoo" and I don't bother. I do have a go at ID'ing the bird and often succeed, but if I have nothing to add, I don't post. I would not advise delaying your answers, being an expert should have its rewards. Some of you have an encyclopedic knowledge that you should be proud of and display.
In addition to North American birds, I can ID some European birds as well (see above... starlings and sparrows :-)) but I am absolutely hopeless on the Asiatic and Austral species. Sometimes it's fun to have a go and sometimes I do but the search is entirely net-based.
I also love stopping by for my Friday Element with Martin! I am enjoying that immensely. The research that you post is of great interest and I truly wish you would either post more of it or post a daily links page to research and scientific items of interest elsewhere.
Rest assured that although I am quiet, I am still present and enjoy this blog greatly both for your work, Grrlscientist, and for the intelligent commenters (that's you all: Icancho, Expecten, Jammerlappie, Psweet, TwitchEd, etc.)
Lastly, I do have an ID on today's bird, which was described by René Primevère Lesson in 1830.
And on Hyraxes.... To my mind Pterry Pratchett has a definite point. There are some species who have not an ounce of predator in them and whose destiny is to end with a squeak and a crunch, the worshipers of Herne the Hunted. I think of them as filling the same ecological niche as Guinea pigs, hamsters, and lagomorphs... which is "prey".
8 January 2012 12:49AM
@Epikoros - those species whose destiny is to end in a squeak and a crunch - those may be some of my favourite species. Hyraxes however - they are the most majestically grumpy of small mammals - they emerge late and sunbathe to get going, with an expression as if they are begging for a large coffee. Later, when more awake, they have perfected the supercilious down-the-nose-stare that is only bettered by camels. When handled they shriek, play dead, and when held more loosely kick you in the balls and run off. They also pee all over you when doing so. So don't feel too sorry for them :)
8 January 2012 1:37AM
Jammerlappie, think of them as a meatball in a fur coat, much as our subject bird does :-)
8 January 2012 1:41AM
(actually, I'm waiting for the mystery bird to be a Roc, with the Hyrax's somewhat larger cousin in its grip :)
8 January 2012 2:43AM
It's been well understood at least since my student days that hyraxes are related to elephants, but, unless you're a molecular phylogeny junkie, you might have missed the truly awesome (and I really MEAN awesome) DNA-confirmed finding that Africa has its own distinct lineage of extremely diverse critters, now known as the Afrotheria. It includes tenrecs, sengis (a.k.a. elephant shrews), golden moles, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants and sea cows. Calling them a lineage means that these guys are all more closely related to each other that to any other mammal. Before the late 90s, golden moles, elephant shrews and tenrecs were supposed to be in the same lineage as hedgehogs & shrews, while aardvarks were seen as allied to pangolins, armadillos and such. Elephants and hyraxes were aliied with the Ungulates. Convergent evolution rides again!
8 January 2012 2:49AM
@icancho - Afrotheria rule! Golden moles and tenrecs are amongst my favourites, As for aardvarke, well...swoon.
8 January 2012 3:27AM
They're pretty amazing all right. Big favorites.
But I must admit to a partiality for the Xenarthra:
I mean, who could resist the Fairy Armadillo or Silky Anteater?
8 January 2012 1:40PM
The Afrotheria is one of my favorite surprises since I was an undergraduate. I'm a naturalist because it still looks as though life is not only more complex than we understand, but more complex than we can understand. But we can try.
8 January 2012 7:12PM
thanks for the comments. i'd wondered where you'd gone to ... but i am happy to know you're still with us!
i actually use several books as my sources of information for the friday morning chemistry/element video, books i should probably link to from now on. however, they're not as factually correct as they should be, so i am reluctant to "recommend" them as sources. i have to sift through the information in those books and fact-check everything before sharing, which takes an indecent amount of time. "indecent" because the shorter the element essays, generally the longer the time i've invested fact checking the information. i try not to spend more than two hours per element, but geez, some elements ...
(the same can be said about the mystery birds, except i've got a LOT more books to sift through, which really ends up being a time sink.)
glad to see you here once more.