Birds

When I decided to commit to the position with AFS one of the first tasks on my prep list was to get a bird ID book for southern Africa. Thanks to Amazon Prime I had it in two days. It was somewhat of a sober yet psychedelic experience, flipping through page after page of radically colored and shaped birds a lot of which I had never even heard of. Gotta love that immediate gratification!
Not only am I passionate about watching, trapping and flying raptors but I also love checking out the beautiful birds that they eat!
What I hope to do is post a "bird slideshow" every 3-4 weeks for those of you who also enjoy checking out birds. I will also try and list the birds in the same order they appear in the slide show.
This is the first, hope you enjoy it!

PLEASE NOTE!!
I am not a "wildlife photographer" I'm just a guy with a camera (Nikon 610 with a Nikkor 70-300 lens). Although the occasional photo may be in focus or have aesthetically pleasing composition please understand I'm an armature at this.
I sincerely appreciate all the photographic help and counsel provided by;

Ron Taniwaki - Nikon Technical
David Keegan - Photographer/ naturalist
Michael Cassidy- Fine Artist
John Russell - photographer
God - Model Services