The vision of birds, particularly those that hunt from the air, such as birds of prey, has not evolved to perceive large, moving structures in their environment, such as wind turbines. This is largely due to birds’ physiological limitations, such as low colour contrast detection abilities, combined with motion smear created by moving, un-patterned turbine...

In arid inland Australia lives one of Australia’s rarest birds: the night parrot. Missing for more than a century, a live population was rediscovered in 2013. But the species remains elusive. Until recently, Australia’s known night parrot population numbered in the tens of birds, scattered across desert in Queensland and Western Australia. But our research...

Photographers from all over the world entered more than 23,000 images into the competition, each with their eyes on the £3,500 grand prize.  Photographer Patricia Homonylo, from Canada, was declared the Bird Photographer of the Year for her thought-provoking image ‘When Worlds Collide’. The photograph shows birds killed by colliding with windows and other reflective...

African Birdlife last conducted a comparative binocular review in the March/April 2013 issue. One of the best models was the Zeiss Conquest, which sits between Zeiss’s top-end Victory and entry-level Terra series. Costing only half the price of the premium Swarovski, Leica and Zeiss Victory models, the Conquest combined excellent optics with a robust, no-nonsense...

The African rail (Rallus caerulescens) is a handsome bird, with a blueish breast, red legs, eyes and bill, prominent barring on the flanks, chestnut upper parts, and long toes. It also has a characteristic trilling call. This wetland dweller is only found in sub-Saharan Africa, with a concentration in South Africa’s Western Cape province.  The species is one of...