This plover is resident in much of west Africa. Very similar to Three-banded Plover, but separated by the dark gray rather than pale forehead, and by the thicker lower breast band. Note the black cap, gray forehead, white stripe behind the eye, and two black bands across the breast. In flight, shows a small amount of white on the trailing edge of the wings and the corners of the tail. Found in a variety of open habitats, such as short grassland (including recently burned areas), cultivation, and muddy wetland edges. the call is a plaintive “Pee-oo” sometimes repeated and sharp “pee-pee-pee”.
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Birdlife international ) but difficult to see in many countries they exist. in Ghana they only occurs in rocky outcrops and grave plains. Booking with Ashanti African Tours ensures you get a higher chance of seeing this beautiful creature when your itinerary goes to the northern Ghana
Ghana 2016, Mole National Park, Felsenwachtel (Stone Partridge) Ptilopachus petrosus
Unusual partridge that is small and dark, with a thick tail that is usually cocked up. A good view reveals red legs, red bare skin around the eye, and fine markings on the breast and head. There is some regional variation: the plumage is generally darker in moister areas and paler in drier areas. Found in a variety of savanna habitats with a thick and grassy understory, often in rocky areas. Usually in pairs or small groups. The distinctive vocalization is a series of loud “wheet” notes that rises and becomes more emphatic, usually given as a duet by a pair. Cocks up the tail like Crested Francolin, but smaller, darker, and without a bold pale eyebrow stripe. with Ashanti African Tours most of our trips ensures we see this beautiful creature.
Male FemaleAfrican Emerald Cuckoos- Foster Frimpong, Ghana February 2022
African emerald cuckoo is sexually dimorphic. The males are strikingly beautiful, with bright glossy green upperparts, throat, and breast and deep golden-yellow belly. Bill bluish; blue-green orbital ring. Adult female barred russet and green above; boldly barred bronzy-green below. Juvenile as female but crown and nape feathers green (not bronzy-brown) fringed white.
The African emerald cuckoo can also be identified by its call, a four-note whistles
Habitats include evergreen and semi-evergreen rainforest. Often heard, but much less seen as usually well hidden in canopy.
Booking a birding trip that goes to the tropical rainforest with us ensure we make it a target.
Contact info@ashantiafricantours.com or visit ashantiafricantours.com for more information about Ghana Birding and nature tours
Ghana is number one destination in West Africa for birdwatchers wanting to see this prehistoric creature among other incredible avifauna. This unusual shorebird (in Ghana it is found along the Volta river in the Northern part of the country) is so distinctive that it has been placed in its own family. The back is blue-gray and the underparts salmon; the head and breast are boldly marked with black and white. Immatures are duller, but still distinctive. In flight, shows a striking pattern of black and white in the outer wing. Found mostly on sandbars in slow-flowing rivers, rarely in other wetland habitats. Booking with Ashanti African Tours guarantee you a 100% chance of seeing this Magical creature
Dipo is a Ghanaian traditional festival celebrated by the people of ‘Krobos’ ie Odumase and Somanya in the EasternRegion of Ghana. The festival is celebrated in the month of April every year. The festival is used to usher into puberty, girls who are virgins and it signifies that a lady, who partakes in it, is of age to be married. Parents upon hearing announcement of the rites send their qualified girls to the chief priest. However these girls would have to go through rituals and tests to prove their chastity before they qualify to partake in the festival.
On the first day of the rites, the girls have their heads shaved and dressed with cloth around their waist to just their knee level. This is done by a special ritual mother and it signifies their transition from childhood to adulthood. They are paraded to the entire community as the initiates (dipo-yo).
Early the next morning, the chief priest gives the initiates a ritual bath. He pours libation to ask for blessings for the girls. He then washes their feet with the blood of a goat which their parents presented. This is to drive away any spirit of barrenness. The crucial part of the rite is when the girls sit on the sacred stone. This is to prove their virginity. However, any girl found to be pregnant or not a virgin is detested by the community and does not entice a man from the tribe.
Photo by Foster Frimpong
The girls are then housed for a week, where they are given training on cooking, housekeeping, child birth and nurture. The ritual mothers give them special lessons on seduction and how to treat their husbands right. They learn the Klama dance which will be performed on the final day of the rites.
After the one-week schooling, they are finally released and the entire community gather to celebrate their transition into womanhood. They are beautifully dressed in rich kente cloth accessorised with beads around their waist, neck and arms. With singing and drumming, they perform the Klama dance. At this point, any man interested in any one of them can start investigating into her family. it is assumed that any lady who partakes in the rites not only brings honour to herself but to her family at large.
This species is considered to be one of the five most desirable birds in Africa by ornithologists.
Yellow-headed Picathartes – Ghana
Due to its strange appearance and behaviour and the difficulty in seeing the species, this bird is considered particularly fascinating by birdwatchers. This species is considered Vulnerable by the IUCN due to its highly fragmented distribution, dwindling population, and habitat destruction.
Through conservational education, establishment of community forestry committee (CFC ) and community development projects instituted in the villages around the picathartes forest by Ashanti African Tours ,has shifted the mindset of the villages from poaching this bird for food, illegal chainsaw operations and burning of charcoal to a well sustainable conservation which has brought developmental projects such as schools and Guesthouse and also creation of community development funds etc.
The species was first described by Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1825 from a specimen collected on the Guinean coast. Three years later, the bird was removed from the genus Corvus by René Primevère Lesson and placed in its own genus, Picathartes, as it did not share characteristics common to members of Corvus which includes feathered head. This generic name comes from a combination of the Latin genera pica for “magpie” and cathartes for “vulture”.The species name is derived from the Ancient Greek words gymnos which means naked, and kephalē meaning head. Common names used for this species include white-necked rockfowl, white-necked picathartes, yellow-headed picathartes, bare-headed rockfowl, and the less frequently used white-necked bald crow. Rockfowl is a reference to the species’ habit of building mud nests on rock surfaces and caves. Picathartes refers to the species’ scientific name. Bald crow is a reference to its featherless head and somewhat crow-like appearance, especially its beak.
This rockfowl lives on steep slopes in both primary
and mature secondary forests. These forests are typically covered in
rocks and are found in hilly lowland areas up to 800 m (2,600 ft). The
white-necked rockfowl often lives near flowing streams and rivers so that it
has access to wet mud for nest construction.
The White-necked rockfowl breeds primarily in caves
and pairs nest either alone or as part of a small colony. The White-necked
rockfowl has two breeding seasons throughout the year, though the timing of the
breeding seasons is determined by the location of the birds and the timing of
the wet season, with nesting occurring just before and after the wet season and
averaging 127 days apart. The rockfowl reuses its nest, and typically
repairs it two to eight weeks prior to laying eggs. Breeding caves are
traditionally deserted while the rockfowl are not breeding, so increased usage
by the rockfowl is considered a first sign of breeding. Nesting colonies
average two to five nests, although one colony had forty nests. In
addition to breeding birds, sometimes non-breeding rockfowl are present. These
birds occasionally attempt infanticide to gain access to prime nesting sites or
mates. Birds in these colonies often chase each other in circles, even
through the treetops, a rare destination for this species.
Unusually for a rainforest-dwelling bird, the white-necked rockfowl builds a nest out of mud with varying amounts of plant fibers mixed in. Mud is collected from nearby rivers and streams and is shaped into a strong, thick-walled, and deep cup attached to the cave wall or roof, these rocks must be sloped inwards to provide the nest with protection from the rain.
One to two eggs, typically two, are laid in each nest a day or two apart. Incubation, begins after the first egg is laid and lasts for 23 to 28 days. Hatching typically takes at least 12 hours. The young leave the nest after 23 to 27 days, at which time they resemble the adult rockfowl but with much shorter tails.
Until 2003, the species was thought to be extinct in Ghana. Most of the Ghanaian sites from which it is known are active forest reserves, where logging periodically occurs. Outside of the reserves, bush-burning and mining for gold and other metals threaten remaining habitat.
Today in Ghana, booking with Ashanti African Tours for birding trips to the upper Guinea Forest ensure 100% record of seeing the Yellow-headed picathartes which in the past was difficult in seeing and fascinating for birdwatchers.
Demidoff’s Galago ( Galagoides demidoff ) Kakum National Park-Ghana By Catherine Sander April 2019
Galagos or Bushbabies are long-tailed, woolly, nocturnal primates highly sensitive and very mobile-they can retract into compact, folded structures. Most species are best identify by vocalizations.
Demidoff’s Galago (also called Prince Demidoff Bushbaby) is the smallest primate in Africa. Like other galagos, Demidoff’s bushbaby is nocturnal and arboreal. During the day it sleeps in a nest made of dense vegetation or leaves some 5 to 40 m (16 to 131 ft) off the ground. At night it forages for insects, mostly beetles and moths, and also feeds on fruit and gum exudate. It can make horizontal bounds of up to 2 m (7 ft). The male has a home range of 0.5 to 2.7 hectares (1.2 to 6.7 acres), which may overlap the smaller home ranges of several females. There is intense competition among males during the breeding season. Females usually have one pregnancy per year, with a gestation period of about 112 days. The female will often hide the baby in the undergrowth during the night while she forages and take it back to the nest in the morning. Weaning takes place at about six weeks and maturity is reached at about nine months.
In Ghana the Demidoff’s Galagos are found in almost all the rainforests, semi deciduous and matured secondary forest which are often seen on all our tours.
Collared Pratincole(Glareola Pratincole) Photo by George Jett
Birds are beautiful and Pratincoles are Amazing. This lovely creature is cute and lovely to see mostly in their perched views and in flight showing the beautiful Chestnut underwing-coverts and axillaries. Though they are mainly non-breeding in Ghana except few but their stay with us here is a remarkable. Thank you George Jett for sharing your photo with me.
Ghana been a hospitable country opens it boundary to tourist around the world which makes it the country best in West Africa and a gateway to Africa. Infrastructure inclined with lots of good hotels and majority of the roads are asphalted.
Most nature enthusiasts will prefer coming to Ghana than any other country due to it’s abundant nature endowment in both fauna (birds and mammals) and flora (Tropical rainforest and woodland Savanna)
There are 15 West African bird endemics and 12 of these occur in Ghana which includes the sort after Yellow-headed Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus), Yellow-bearded Greenbul (Criniger olivaceous) are just few to mention.
As mentioned earlier, mammals and butterflies are not exempted from our tours. we have a qualified and expect butterfly guides who will make sure you get the best of Ghana as butterfly and mammals are concern
Foster Frimpong 