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Nature on your doorstep

Clive Stewart capturing the beauty of everyday nature. https://natureonyourdoorstep.com - Wall art with a difference.

29/05/2026

These guys have hijacked my chimney for the winter 🥶

But I love having them around so well worth the sacrifice and each day the family arrive and stare through the window flapping their wings about, as they do, until i throw them some homemade peanut seed ball.

As a species the Familiar Chats have adapted exceptionally well to human structures and will often nest in walls, chimneys, sheds, bridges and even old machinery. "Familiar" gets its unique name from its tame behaviour, frequently perching in plain sight and hanging around human settlements.

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28/05/2026

Red-eyed Dove

Doves have unusually large and powerful flight muscles, accounting for up to 15–20% of their body weight. This allows for rapid, explosive take-offs when threatened.

The familiar whistle heard as a dove takes flight is not a call, but a mechanical sound known as sonation. It is produced by air passing over specialised outer wing feathers during the wingbeat, creating the distinctive whistling sound.

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26/05/2026

Tawny Eagle - Distinguishing between Tawny and Steppe Eagles is a tough challenge imo, especially since their plumage and facial features are so similar. When first viewing these comparison diagrams it’s easy to think this image could be a Steppe Eagle.

Both species occur in Kruger but in this case it is the migration patterns that helped me with the ID. Steppe Eagles are long-distance migrants that move north during the SA winter to breed across parts of Asia and Russia, while Tawny Eagles (Aquila rapax) are largely sedentary and do not perform extensive migrations.

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24/05/2026

The Kurrichane Thrush is can easily be mistaken for a robin because of its warm orange underparts, upright posture and habit of feeding quietly on the ground.
One giveaway is its behaviour — pausing, listening and tilting its head slightly while foraging through leaf litter, often using sound to detect movement beneath the surface.
The name “Kurrichane” comes from the historic Kuruman/Kurrichane region of southern Africa, where many inland species were first documented by early naturalists in the 1800s🙂

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21/05/2026

“Precocial” birds (chicks that leave the nest early) tend to have smaller brains relative to body size than altricial species that develop slowly in the nest.

The Martial Eagle is “altricial”, where the young remain dependent for 6–12 months after fledging, still begging while learning to hunt, use thermals, and range over vast distances.
However, altrical as it is, Africa’s largest eagle (up to 6.2 kg) still has a small brain relative to body size—both eyes together actually weigh more than its brain. By contrast, a small songbird like a sparrow has a far higher brain-to-body ratio.

This slow development helps explain why Martial Eagles breed so slowly, usually raising just one chick every few years. They are currently listed as Endangered in South Africa and globally by the IUCN.😕

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19/05/2026

Everyone loves a “Toppie” 🙂

Dark-capped Bulbul(Pycnonotus tricolor).
The name bulbul comes from Arabic, where it originally referred to the nightingale. However, today it belongs to a completely different group of birds called Pycnonotidae — a diverse family of around 170 species spread across Africa and much of Asia.

In South Africa bulbuls are affectionately called “toppies”, from the Dutch and Afrikaans top, meaning a crest or little tuft… due to their cheeky hairstyle. In Afrikaans slang, a “toppie” is an affectionate or colloquial term for an old man — which also reinforces the love we all have for this bird’s character.

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17/05/2026

Magpie Shrike at golden hour .
The term comes from the older film and art phrase “magic hour”, used for decades to describe the short window when the sun sits low on the horizon. When the sun becomes softer, warmer and more diffused, reducing harsh contrast and bringing out subtle feather detail and texture.🙂📸

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14/05/2026

Black-backed Puffback

With puffbacks is not the puff itself — it’s about how quickly they puff.

Most birds change appearance slowly: posture shifts, feathers rise gradually, wings open in stages. Puffbacks flip between two visual identities almost instantly. One moment they look like a neat, compact bird. A split second later they become a round white-and-black ball. Then just as quickly, they collapse back to normal again.
Animals don’t just recognise colour or shape — they recognise change.
Sudden transformation is one of the strongest attention-triggers in the animal world. It’s the same principle behind startle displays in butterflies or the flash of a fish turning sideways in the water.🙂

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12/05/2026

Starlings are a great photographic study of light, and I love the way their plumage transforms under different conditions.

Meves’s and Burchell’s Glossy Starlings are difficult to tell apart, and both occur in Kruger National Park—Meves’s mainly in the north, while Burchell’s is typical of the central and southern areas. Meves’s has a longer, more graduated tail and a finer bill, while Burchell’s shows a shorter tail and heavier bill. Both have dark eyes in the field, so eye colour is not helpful.

This image was taken in the central region, leaning north, so I can’t say for certain, but I’m leaning towards Burchell’s. Any Starling experts out there, please share your thoughts...🙂

11/05/2026

It’s all in the neck 🙂
The neck structure of the Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) and other members of the Ardeidae family (herons, egrets, bitterns) acts as a highly specialised cervical system, including a modified hinge region that functions more like a tensioned spring for predation, rather than merely a flexible S-curve.

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