Cape Town Daily Photo

Mossies in flight

Would you call this a flock of birds or a small family of siblings? I haven’t quite decided, but they do kinda look like a quintet of sisters. The five of them appeared to potter about the lawn in a small cluster, attacking worms ‘n bugs with great enthusiasm. A second before I took this photo a loud sound startled what I presume to be the oldest sister, causing her to take flight towards shelter, with her four sisters immediately following suit.

My untrained bird-watching eye identifies these birds as being of the Cape Sparrow variety, often referred to by the Afrikaans name, Mossie (which sounds something like “maw-see”). Assuming my bird-watching eye hasn’t let me down, then these are five females, as the males, you’ll find, have black feathers covering most of their head.