Christmas is For the Birds

Well, at least at our house, Christmas is partially for the birds.

expat living South Africa travel

I have been showering our feathered friends here with yuletide greetings: a variety of fruit including apricot, pear, orange, banana, peaches and apples for the fruit eaters; and homemade nectar or sunflower seeds for others.

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

Wouldn’t these birds look just gorgeous in snow? I’d love to take them back to our home in Lover, PA.

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

Oh who am I kidding? These birds already look gorgeous, and with their warm weather habitat and affinity for fruit, they would not appreciate it if I tried to take them back to the states when we return in a couple years.

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

So I guess I’ll have to settle for trying to capture them in photos and take those with me.

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

expat living South Africa travel

And now to sweeten Christmas a bit for some of my regular car guards and servers, with what I originally was calling “Rand-y canes” (for my non-SA friends, these are tied together with a green, ten-Rand note) but then decided that might be a little bit creepy.

expat living South Africa travel

How about you? Do you tip your favorite customer service people this time of year? Anything special or just a little extra in the pot?

Love, Marla

P.S. Thanks to my Sassol bird guide I now can identify all of these birds. Can you identify any of them?


4 thoughts on “Christmas is For the Birds

  1. I recognize the go away bird, and one that I can identify as a finch of some variety; beyond that I could only guess even to relativity! Really curious about the small ones drinking the nectar…what are those? Really nice pics too!

  2. I love birdwatching in my front yard here! We have the yellow weaver birds and the Southern red bishops. We leave seed out for them, but I’ll have to put some fruit out, too. I saw a smallish bird of prey this morning, but couldn’t ID it with Google.

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