Seen once before here but still a pretty elusive visitor to the back garden: an Olive Woodpecker (Dendropicos griseocephalus).
Never easy to shoot (just look at that post I linked to above), because they are so agile and so ready to slip around a tree trunk or branch just as you are getting them into focus.
Not to mention the leafy suburban garden getting between the lens and it.
But he soon got into the mood and even gave me a very brief smile before we headed our separate ways.
One of my jobs for this holiday is to compile a list of birds I have seen in – and birds I have seen from – our garden. There will be a couple of surprising* entries in the latter (African Fish Eagle, Great White Pelican) as well as the usual Cape Town run-of-the-mill feathery stuff.
* OK, less surprising now, I guess.