Vernon Head

Posts by Vernon Head

Canaries are part of a diverse group of granivores or seed-eating birds.

The Cape canary: synonymous with song

13 May 2013 | Vernon Head

The delight of canaries is loudest when you listen.

Tiny and shy, flufftails are enigmas to even the most avid of birdwatchers.

Flufftails: shy enigmas that are facing extinction

30 April 2013 | Vernon Head

Tiny and shy, flufftails are enigmas to even the most avid of birdwatchers. Sadly through the loss and reduction of their wetland habitat, they could be facing extinction.

A grey heron. Elegant, thin and long like a stream.

Birdwatching by the river

22 April 2013 | Vernon Head

From handsome water-thick knees gathered on sand spits to snake-eating grey herons, South African streams have some of the most diverse wildlife. There's nothing as relaxing as birdwatching by the river in the southern tip of Africa.

A Cape shoveler stretching athletically into flight – a master of its environment.

Meet the aquatic athletes of the avian world

26 February 2013 | Vernon Head

On land, they waddle widely, balanced atop splayed toes like wrestlers, but once they hit water, they paddle and dip and dive like Chad le Clos. Meet the aquatic athletes of the avian world: ducks.

The Cape sugarbird is synonymous with the protea; it’s almost part of the plant.

Discovering fynbos and feathers in The Cape Floral Kingdom

30 January 2013 | Vernon Head

Fynbos foliage flows tightly like water, hugging the shape of the land and folding with the earth. Look between shiny leaves and straw-like tufts, and you’ll discover an interesting set of little birds.

Larking about

4 January 2013 | Vernon Head

From farmlands and desert sands to wild, grassy plains, a group of brown birds live subtly. Larks are little moving bits of earth, pebbles with feathers, leaves with beaks and tiny tumbling twigs with wings.

Bird migration is a story of great distances, perilous journeys, endurance and awe-inspiring precision.

Bird migration: why it’s one of nature’s most mysterious phenomena

21 November 2012 | Vernon Head

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Winds might suck and push at birds and weather systems could steer and nudge them along, but the magnetic pull of gravity will turn and guide them constantly. In this high, vibrant world of immense movement a powerful story of migration unfolds.

Sea birds are an important part of the marine world and powerful indicators of the health of the oceans.

Save our sea birds

9 November 2012 | Vernon Head

Like a giant jellyfish, the ocean wobbles with life, it sparkles in energy like a shoal of tiny fish and on its surface, if you watch carefully, reflections of birds dance.

A black heron stands in hunting pose, with a skirt of feathers setting a clever trap for prey.

Haughty herons

21 September 2012 | Vernon Head

Where water licks up against land, everything is flushed with activity. A special group of birds can be seen towering regally above the rest.

Sandwich terns with their yellow-tipped beaks on a spit of estuarine sand, which provides a convenient summer roosting site.