A new bird in my garden

These are pics of a Barthroated Apalis. I saw this bird in my garden for the first time on 29 January 2009. Okay, I did need help finding out what is was, (thank you Martin) and would not have been able even to ask for help without the pictures, which were tricky to get because it hardly stayed still for a second. It was eating the remains of flying ants from the paving. This January we have had some very heavy rainfalls, and quite often in the evenings after the rain, flying ants appear. One evening the sky was crowded with hundreds of bats preying on these insects. I have never seen so many together at once, and it was magical to watch them weaving and swooping. Not a patch of sky was left batless and the air was full of their chirps and clicks. Next day the birds came to clean up the leftovers, as the Barthroated Apalis is doing here.

Labels: barthroated apalis

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