Capped Wheatear (Oenanthe pileata).
This wheatear is found in open dry sandy and stony habitats and short grassland with a few bushes and termite mounds. This solitary species feeds on insects, especially ants. Like other wheatears, it perches on mounds and hops over the short grass, or flies low over the ground. (wonder where the Old world Flycatcher name comes from, they don’t even eat flies.)
The Capped Wheatear’s song is a loud melodic warble interspersed with slurred chattering, (not due to the intake of alcohol) and it has a chik-chik alarm call. It is monogamous and builds a nest of straw, grass, and leaves in a hole in the ground or a termite mound. Typically it lays three or four, and sometimes more, eggs.
It is 17–18 cm long and weighs 32 g. Its legs and pointed bill are black. This common species is striking and unmistakable in appearance. The adult has a black cap, cheeks and breast band, and a white eye stripe and throat.
Now for some photos… again this bird was talking and I could hear it.. (getting worried about that.!!)
The Photographic Journey of bulldog. 
With your photographs of birds, I must say that birds are a thing beauty.
Thank you Sony… it is very kind of you to comment so…
haha…great dialogue and great photos! I like the poses!
Thank you… this one certainly had a message to impart…
how amazing, you are so nice dear Rob, I loved this photographical story, Thanks and Love, nia
Thanks Nia… this shoot was a kind of special capture… this bird seemed to want to tell me something…
You read his mind perfectly.
Thank you… just seemed to be what he was saying… specially with my camera right in his face…
I love the attitude the bird is show you. It looks like it has a permanent case of the “stink eye” ( some call it a scowl, but I prefer the more descriptive term). It’s probably miffed that everyone expects it to catch flies when it hates flies. 😉
How right you are and thank you for the laugh… old world flycatcher… people don’t give birds credit for changing their diets… maybe they had fat legs before changing…
Great catch on the small limb. How far away were you? … love the captions!
This one was probably only 10 ft. from me, used a bit of zoom to get the depth blur and to capture his colours, because the light was not of the best and I had no idea till I got home what bird it was… a lot of my photos are taken for ID purposes and in that case not much thought is given to composition etc… but these did turn out well… thanks for asking and commenting…
10 feet away, yet the clicks didn’t disturb the bird! Thanks for the explanation.
I have my camera on silent… I take a lot of photos on golf courses… you know how upset a golfer can get if you click on his back swing… just found it does not disturb the birds as well….
LOL … just goes to show how little I know about that. 🙂 …. but I’ll remember that if anyone is taking photos when I’m swinging! 😉
Aw sweet, how very cute!
Thanks so much… a good set of photos I thought…
I thought so too 🙂
Bird with ‘tude! LOL Love how you speak “bird” so well 😉
Can you see that almost challenging look in the last photo… looks like a bit of a bully hidden in the bird…
Wow .. you know your birds …. love you humor – but why not fly over the car ?????? Brilliant shots again !!! I thought he was watching tennis.
The way he looked at me in the photo .. said so much.. almost a cocky look about it as if to say get out of my way…
Maybe .. he was just annoyed … in general. He looks cocky.
He looks pretty serious to me with the “mask” on his face. I think he’s a super hero bird!!! Kind of reminds me of batman :).
Damn and I sat right in his way… fortunately he didn’t attack..lol
Well, obviously you weren’t doing anything wrong – not this time anyway LOL!!!
Ma quanto è bello, ogni giorno mi dai la possibilità di conoscere nuove specie di animali, grazie 🙂
Nell’ultima foto sembra ti stia guardando e chiedendosi… ma che vuole da me?? 😆
Ciao, Pat
Yes I love the last photo as well… just seems to have so much expression on its face…
Aww, he’s sweet 🙂
Ain’t he just…
cute and follows instruction well!
Must have had a good Mother…
Hahaha – brilliant! And I think it’s perfectly normal that birds talk to you 😀
Thank you Dianne… now I feel better.. though I might just be loosing it
What a beautiful little bird. I am glad to know that alcohol is not a part of his dietary intake! 🙂 I have been curious to know how you identify your birds. There are so many! Do you study birds and then go out to find them, or find them, take photos and then try to identify them. You seem to have a lot of knowledge and with such variety, that can’t be easy! This little guy has beautiful coloring!
I have good books and an ID is not always easy due to some being so close to others… but being around birds for 50 plus years one tends to remember an awful lot… I also collected birds eggs as a youngster where ID and such was a necessity… it has just been a hobby and a love from years back and the I go out with the camera and see what I can capture, get a lot of duplicates but sometimes one is lucky…. we have 900 odd specie and I want to capture as many as possible on camera… so far I’ve got just over 300 now, not all good, but we keep on going… it’s a wonderful hobby followed by so many in this country… and we even have a FB page where if one struggles with an ID there are many to help..
And I thought I had skinny legs… ha ha
I see what you mean… I’m sure your’s are nowhere near these…
Your captions are so hilarious! What a cute little bird.
Thank you… they must stop talking to me.. or I’m going to need a head reader…
smart bird:) nice photos..
Thank you… pretty little fellow….
Sounds like this Capped Wheater is an interesting little creature bulldog! Wish you could input audio here in your post and we could hear the loud melodic warble ~ and slurred chatters 🙂 There must be a way!! A cutie birdy too! Captions are funny!! ~ Thank you – and Much Love ~R
I have just put together a post on a bird the Burchell’s Coucal and added its call, interesting you should think of that when I did… great minds and all that… had a bit of trouble working it out.. and also copy rights.??
a perky and pretty bird – thanks for sharing. What do you do anyway…I mean for a living? How do you know so much about all these animals?
Now that’s a good question… I’ve been in the bush or out doors all my life.. I grew up in the bush, worked as a Land Surveyor in the bush, worked as a Golf Course Super till a year ago, and now am semi retired, with a computer program I designed being encoded for sale in the golf industry.. it’s unique and hopefully will put me in the position to be fully retired and merely head up the company of Bulldogs Turf Solutions… my love of animals and birds began when I was sent to a school in the bush at the age of 6 and my fascination began there… 56 years later I’ve learnt so much, yet have still not finished learning… it’s been a great life…
It sounds like you’ve had a great life and continue to do so!
I’ve been asked to write my life story by my kids as I relate so much of what has happened and think it would make a great book… being chased by elephant and running into a cape cobra (snake) dropping my shirt and having the elephant attack it… all little lovely experiences I’ve had… and so much of it… maybe they’re right I should write it, if for no one else, but for them and their issue….
yes you should write it – what a legacy for your family that would be!
Hahaha. Love the road-crossing rules that my mom taught me. Yes, I am getting a little worried about you, bdt. Actually, both you and Suzanne. 😀 What a cocky little fellow is Mnr. Wheatear. 🙂
Not to worry too much its an end of year thing…. the rules of the road our parents taught us so many years ago, well in my case, you’re so much younger…
😆 I think we’re much of an age.