A small bird with ring 272540 was found dead on 6 October 2011 in a garden in Woodbridge Island, Milnerton. Elize Solms found the bird hanging in one of the trees - she suspects that a Fiscal Shrike (that is resident) hung him up there and ate his head off. Fiscal Shrikes do kill nestlings and sometimes even small birds.

This bird was a Southern Red Bishop, ringed on 2 November 2010, at the nearby Zoar vlei. It was ringed by Susie Cunningham as a juvenile. Ringing birds on the Cape peninsula is part of a project looking at movements of small wetland birds. See more here.

Photo: juvenile Southern Red Bishop, showing a clear gape flange.