Birds were just as big a hit on the Lufupa River game drive as they were on our land game drives. I think that the birds were probably even more prominent along the rivers. We watched them nesting, diving for fish, flying every which way, and very much enjoyed the show. Once again, these are all photos from my daughter, Cory.

This is an African Darter and it’s drying its wings. This bird can be quite entertaining. It dives into the river for fish and after spearing a fish, it flips the fish up in the air, catches it, and swallows it headfirst. In this photo, the African Darter is drying off its wings. We saw several of them doing this. I presume this is after catching a fish.

This Half-collared Kingfisher seemed to like the quieter parts of the river and liked where the bank was covered with some dense vegetation. These birds perched on low branches quite close to the water and they didn’t seem to mind us getting close to them, hence the good close-up photo. They also dive into the water for fish and also eat the fish headfirst. When they did move, they were very fast.

Great White Egrets were well represented in this area. We see them at home as well but this was a nice photo of one. These birds are excellent at catching fish and at night, roost high up in trees. We saw them mostly along the shores and in the shallow water.

This is a Hammerkop. It’s a somewhat peculiar bird with an oversized head, shaped somewhat like a hammer. It’s sometimes called a Hammerhead. It builds an incredibly large enclosed nest. We saw one Hammerkop nest very close to the river and it must have been three feet high and almost as wide. It was built low on the base of a small tree. Our guide indicated that they use the same nests for years and just keep adding to them every year. Our guide also said the large nest was developed to intimidate predators. Hammerkops feed primarily on frogs and tadpoles in the shallow waters along the river and amongst the water weeds.

I took a couple of good photos of the Open-billed Stork, where you could actually see it’s beak and see that it’s open in the middle. But I included this photo of the stork with a Puku because we saw birds mixed in with Puku and Impalas quite often. I don’t know if there’s a reason, like warnings against predators, but birds and antelope seemed to be ready companions in Kafue.