What will almost certainly be a quiet little year - Soukous 2019

[Soukous]

17 - Squacco Heron - Ardeola ralloides

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

18 - Crowned Lapwing - Vanellus coronatus

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

19 - Grey-backed Fiscal - Lanius excubitoroides

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

20 - Diederik Cuckoo - Chrysococcyx caprius

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Always a treat to see your wonderful photos @Soukous!

[Galana]

A great collection for what was stated to be a 'little' year.

The pedant in me would like to correct ~#10.

No hyphen pls.

It's a Grey Crowned Crane and not a Crane with a Grey Crown.

[xelas]

Beautiful photos, @Soukous. As for the name of that Crane, I have it wrongly also 

[Soukous]

17 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Always a treat to see your wonderful photos @Soukous!

 

too kind Mr Connan

[Soukous]

13 hours ago, Galana said:

A great collection for what was stated to be a 'little' year.

The pedant in me would like to correct ~#10.

No hyphen pls.

It's a Grey Crowned Crane and not a Crane with a Grey Crown.

 

Pedants always welcome when it comes to bird names.

[Treepol]

@Soukous lovely shots of the hornbills, Grey-headed Kingfisher, bee-eaters and the Grey-crowned cranes.

[Soukous]

21. Common Fiscal - Lanius collaris

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

[Soukous]

22. Great Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopos major

Suffolk, Jan 2019

 

Not a great photo, but this guy is now a regular - and welcome - visitor to our garden

[Soukous]

23. Brown Snake Eagle - Circaetus cinereus (I think) 

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

24. Grey-backed Fiscal - Lanius excubitoroides

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

Ndutu. tanzania. feb 2019

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Soukous

[Soukous]

25. Steppe (Common) Buzzard (imm) - Buteo buteo

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

Not sure of this ID

 

[Soukous]

26. Northern White-crowned Shrike - Eurocephalus ruepelli

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Soukous

[Soukous]

27. Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu - Uraeginthus bengalus

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

28. Vitelline Masked Weaver - Ploceus velatus

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

 

[Galana]

7 hours ago, Soukous said:

25. Steppe (Common) Buzzard (imm) - Buteo buteo

Lake Manyara, Tanzania. Feb 2019

Not sure of this ID

I share your concerns.

It looks very similar to Mountain Buzzard and Honey Buzzard with a distinct resemblance to Short-toed Snake. Note the black legs and feet.

[Soukous]

8 hours ago, Galana said:

I share your concerns.

It looks very similar to Mountain Buzzard and Honey Buzzard with a distinct resemblance to Short-toed Snake. Note the black legs and feet.

 

Interesting. I had it down as a Mountain Buzzard originally, then had doubts.

[Dave Williams]

I'm always amazed at how quickly and intuitively @Galana picks up the subtle differences. It's this that makes the BY threads so interesting and educational. Well done Fred, you had me diving for my guide book to see what you were on about!! 

However, Sasol doesn't have a Mountain Buzzard in it, and none that are in it do have black feet either. Is this just a product of them being in deep shade rather than the actual colour? I see the resemblance to Honey Buzzard though.

 

Just a point from me though, Steppe Buzzard is actually Buteo vulpinus not Buteo Buteo which is Common Buzzard, They are classed separately now I think.

 

Anyway, it might be a quiet year Martin but it looks like a quality photographic year so far. Common, chuck in an EBC to make us feel comfortable with our own efforts!!

 

Not sure what happened to my typing!

Edited April 24, 2019 by Dave Williams

[Galana]

1 hour ago, Dave Williams said:

Is this just a product of them being in deep shade rather than the actual colour?

I don't know. I have tried blowing up on my screen to little effect. I think they are grey legs. It's an enigma. The staring yellow eye suggests Honey Buzzard or large Accipter but the tail bars deny that.

@Soukous Can you play around with the image a bit? Lets see the tail/legs combo with another pic of the head pls and see if this helps.

If not I vote you can count it as UFO.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Galana
Additional updated comment.

[Soukous]

21 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

I'm always amazed at how quickly and intuitively @Galana picks up the subtle differences. It's this that makes the BY threads so interesting and educational. Well done Fred, you had me diving for my guide book to see what you were on about!! 

However, Sasol doesn't have a Mountain Buzzard in it, and none that are in it do have black feet either. Is this just a product of them being in deep shade rather than the actual colour? I see the resemblance to Honey Buzzard though.

 

@Dave Williams Totally agree, @Galana skills are supernatural. 

 

I think that SASOL don't have it because the Mountain Buzzard does not occur in Southern Africa. Neither of my other Southern Africa guides show it either.

 

Just a point from me though, Steppe Buzzard is actually Buteo vulpinus not Buteo Buteo which is Common Buzzard, They are classed separately now I think.

 

I'm pleased about that, I thought it had gone the other way and they had now been lumped together.

[Soukous]

19 hours ago, Galana said:

I don't know. I have tried blowing up on my screen to little effect. I think they are grey legs. It's an enigma. The staring yellow eye suggests Honey Buzzard or large Accipter but the tail bars deny that.

@Soukous Can you play around with the image a bit? Lets see the tail/legs combo with another pic of the head pls and see if this helps.

If not I vote you can count it as UFO.

 

Here you are Fred. Hopefully this shot allows a positive ID

[Soukous]

I think I've now posted all the shots from Lake Manyara that I'm happy with. I could happily have stayed there for another whole day as I'm sure I would have doubled my bird count, but not all of my travelling companions were as excited by birds as me. So we moved on; to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

 

29. Yellow-billed Kite - Milvus migrans parasitus

Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Feb 2019