African Paradise-Flychatcher

This time of the year, my garden is prolific with birds building nests. Last week I noticed an African Paradise-Flycatcher female dipping down below my office window. I took a closer look and saw she was pulling a small, thin reed from my garden fence. 

Michael and I checked in the lemon tree behind our house. In the past, this was a favorite spot for these birds to nest in. We saw nothing.

Yesterday while we had the pups on the lawn, I heard the African Paradise-flycatcher calling from above. Then Michael said: "Bibi, there's the bird in a nest!" 

I grabbed my camera from indoors ...

African Paradise-flycatcher female (only her rear end is visible) on the nest 

The Paradise-Flycatcher Female has a shorter tail and duller blue eye rings than the male's. Her bill is almost grey rather than blue like her mate's 

...and while I focused on the female in the nest, the male flew in and sat next to her. 

African Paradise-Flycatcher female on the nest with the male on the right  

The female flew off and the male took his place on the nest.

 At times, he seemed to be working on the nest rather than sitting on eggs already

 The African Paradise-flycatcher breeding male (as above) has long tail streamers and bright blue lines around his eyes. His bill is also bright blue

Here the male's long tail streamers and bright eye and bill are very prominent

An iconic image of the African Paradise-flycatcher on the nest

The African Paradise-flycatcher is the most widespread flycatcher in Sub-Saharan Africa. It's a common resident and intra-African migrant. The pair share nesting duties and I hope to keep you in the loop with this exciting event in my garden at present. 

I'm linking my post today to Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart Monckton here