Twitching the Tinker

It was up before dawn for the team made up of four individuals: Maans Booysen, Tim Desilets, Paul Netscher and myself. The warm, humid Mozambican air sticking to our skin like an unwanted layer of clothing with the only other creatures awake being the resident mosquito's which, to this day, I despise and have yet found an answer to the question all of humanity wants to know: what purpose do they in fact serve other than to drive us close to the borders of insanity? A question which can be equaled to "did the Americans indeed land on the moon?", as much as we try our luck at finding out we will never know the true answer.

As the suns rays started to kiss the horizon we climbed into the air-conditioned Prado and made our way onto the EN1, heading north in our quest for a species of bird which was previously thought to be extinct in the Southern African sub-region, that is until Greg Davies and Hugh Chittenden made a momentous discovery back in January 2013. The bird I refer to, you may ask; non other than the Green Tinkerbird (Pogoniulus simplex) a species of Tinkerbird most commonly found in east Africa.

The Green Tinkerbird is a fairly unassuming bird being relatively small in size (roughly 11.5cm), weighing in at a massive 9g, greenish/olive above and a paler grey/olive below and sporting some serious golden/yellow jewelry on his wings just to add the cherry on the top. It prefers lowland evergreen forest and riparian thickets which make the area around the small town of Unguane ideal habitat for this frugivorous species.

Perfect Green Tinkerbird habitat

After roughly an hour and a half of nerve wrecking driving, stressing about the possibility of "dipping", we finally arrived at Unguane and the searching began- Gorgeous Bushshrike, Red-throated Twinspot, Sombre Greenbul, Livingstones Flycatcher, Rudds Apalis, Eastern Nicator, Dark-backed Weaver and Woodwards Batis all put in an appearance but much to our disappointment there was still no sign of ANY Tinkerbirds, let alone the more common Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird which is generally found with relative ease in the area. It was decided that we were to try a spot near a local homestead, passing through what looked to be a makeshift chicken pen, smiling and waving and getting equal, somewhat toothless gestures back. We carried on birding the area, keeping our ears peeled for the distinct, rapid paced pop, pop, pop, pop, pop call or any other sign leading us to the presence of our desired bird.

All of a sudden a call similar to that of a Green Tinkerbird burst into chorus somewhere in the surrounding thickets and immediately our hearts started to pound in our throats, a wave of nausea hitting me like a sledgehammer in the gut, my mind wondering not about the bird but how I was going to be transported to a nearby hospital. If my heart carried on pounding at this speed it would seem necessary. However much to our dismay (but thankful my heart had now calmed down somewhat and a hospital looking as if it was no longer needed) it was merely a contact call from a Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, taunting us but at the same time reassuring us that there were indeed Tinkerbirds in the area and that they were not just a local myth.

We decided it was time to drive further along the well worn dirt track (not exactly what some would consider a road) to a spot where another fellow birder had previously had sightings of the "GT". We pulled off, got out the car and immediately were immersed in a bird party moving through the area, with Livingstones Flycatchers and Woodwards Batis's putting on a show for all in the group. I decided to wonder off a bit and see what else I could find when I heard a distinct, fast paced pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Immediately my heart dropped to the pits of my stomach as I managed to spew out something along the lines of "Guys, get here now!" assuming they picked up on the tone of my voice and the nerves which controlled it, as in a matter of seconds they were standing next to me and we then proceeded to play the call of the Green Tinkerbird, hoping that it would initiate some sort of response and bring the bird out into the open. But nothing. We waited and waited but no response and the call I previously heard had now stopped, vanished into the now deafening silence that enveloped us.

Green Tinkerbird putting on a show

The rest of the group went back up the road to try for photographs of the Woodwards Batis's which were still prancing around like they were on a fashion show runway in Paris and I decided to stay on and see what else popped up, having my mind set on getting visuals of a calling Gorgeous Bushshrike when all of a sudden the same rapid, machine gun like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.            Trying my best not to get my hopes up,
I brought out my phone and played "the music" and within seconds my eyes were fixed on a previously regionally extinct species as an adult Green Tinkebird hopped up into full view and started to voice his position (I'm assuming not on politics).

yet another shot of this most unassuming bird

Not thinking the slightest about being quiet (being caught up in the moment and all) I called for the rest of the group who ended up jogging to my side and within moments had their eyes fixed upon the bird. Immediately we started snapping away, taking record shot after record shot and after announcing itself to all around and putting on a very fine show, Mr/Mrs Tinker decided it was time to call it quits and flew off, leaving behind it a group of four, dumbfounded, incredibly ecstatic birders who had just seen one of those "dream birds", a species which we had previously given up on seeing in the sub-region due to its status of regionally extinct but a species which we had now just had cracking views of and one which earned a most welcome spot on our life lists and claimed a spot in our biding highlights bank of memories.

....And still the Mosquito's kept on launching their full blown assault on any exposed/covered body part- you
gotta love Mozambique!

A VERY happy me, moments after connecting with the Tinkerbird