GAME: name that bird!

[Player23]

Hi, thanks for that! Here is my contribution.

 

Edited June 7, 2012 by Player23

[Player23]

Please let me know if you can open the attachment. I do not know how to submit the image on the posts - comes from being in the wilds of Africa too long!!

[pault]

It doesn't open - we don't have permission. If you can host it somewhere so we can save it, I or someone else can post it for you - but I think the instructions in Game Warden's signature line should help you to be able to do it yourself.

[Game Warden]

I can open the attachment, is anyone else having problems with it?

 

Indeed as PaulT says, have a look at the info in my signature line. (I need to check myself if it needs updating...)

[Player23]

Still battling!!!!

Edited June 7, 2012 by Player23

[kittykat23uk]

^{can't open it here. getting permision denied error.}

[Game Warden]

Okay, try now and let me know

[Player23]

No, just displays the path name in text. Sorry! Maybe you can post the photo, or someone else take over from me. Frustrated now!!

Edited June 7, 2012 by Player23

[inyathi]

Hi, thanks for that! Here is my contribution.

 

 

It's working fine for me

 

I haven't decided on the species yet, I'll need to think about this one for a bit longer

[pault]

Yes, it's there now. Victory for perseverance!

 

Nice haircut! As for idenification, I'm still on the sidelines watching.

[Player23]

Inyathi, thanks for that. Will have to see what the problem was on my side.

[Player23]

Mmmm.... Just saw that my original posting of this bird is displaying correctly. Interesting!

[TZBirder]

Hmmm... This game seems to have just progressed from coffee-time entertainment to headache! Isn't is a lark... So, still being separated from my books and with little idea where in Africa we might be (it's obviously dry at times...) the best I can hope is to give a few others a few clues to start a proper search... Obviously the hair-do is the most distinctive thing here. And a crest like that makes me think immediately of Galerida or Alauda. The only one of the latter we'd allow would have taken Player on a very interesting trip, but I think the markings are too soft for that species. The bill doesn't look right for Galerida species - they're all with dark or horn coloured bits and this bill is remarkably pale. In fact, I think it's the bill that's going to be the biggest clue here, once the crest is sorted, because there are precious few larks with pale bills that I know. The other group that often has a crest is Calandrella and there's a species there with a pale bill - Somali Lark, but it's not the athensis race I know from around here - it would have to be one of the more northern ones I don't know. Then southern Africa has a whole set of strange lark things that I've so far completely failed to see on my brief trips down there, so I have no idea if it might fit one of those crazy micro-endemic groups at all. So, if it's a species I know, it's a funny Somali Short-toed in such fresh plumage that it softens th marks completely, and with a bit of an overgrown hairdo. But, as I say, I'm away from my books for another month or so, so limited to very falible memory and the species I know well around here! Still, maybe these thoughts will help others know where to look at least...

[twaffle]

OMG, this game is way out of my league (well, it was always a bit over my head). You guys are amazing.

[Rainbirder]

Another easy one!!!

My first thoughts were Crested/Thekla Lark but the bill is wrong.

I know little of South African birds so I'll bow out of this one! ;-)

[kittykat23uk]

Again, not a bird I have seen, but looking at the stony ground, the crest and the pale eye ring and collar, with what looks like a quite thick bill, I will go with a southern african guess from the namib desert area. Is it (Tony) Stark's Lark?

[inyathi]

Now this really is a tricky one.

 

Larks aren’t too easy and there are an awful lot of them in Africa, so how to narrow it down? Well your location says South Africa so assuming you haven’t travelled too far outside your backyard then this is a southern bird and judging by the background a dry country species, but which one? I would have thought that the crest and the distinctive large pale bill should give it away but I can’t seem to find anything that definitely has this combination so I’m not really sure. So this is a bit of a guess but I’m going to say

 

Fawn-coloured Calendulauda africanoides.

 

Though I'm not too sure about the crest so I may be completely wrong, besides for all I know is not a southern species at all and you've just been birding in Eritrea or in the middle of the Sahara or some other off the beaten track place.

 

Whichever one it is I think I need to photograph more larks.

Edited June 8, 2012 by inyathi

[Game Warden]

Come on, stop larking around and get the answer right...

[inyathi]

Come on, stop larking around and get the answer right...

 

After this comment and in honour of your new avatar I'm afraid I couldn't resist posting this from the great Edward Lear

 

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, 'It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!

[Game Warden]

Off topic:

 

Snapped during a Google + hangout, this was the Union Jack with pencils, all freely hanging within my beard without glue or hairgrips etc... 4 seperate pencils. (Sorry for the low quality screengrab)

 

[Rainbirder]

Thank goodness it's legitimate!

I feared that Rasputin had hi-jacked your avatar! ;-)

[Game Warden]

Changing topic title to Name that Beard...

[Player23]

Hi! Sorry, I was away from email for the weekend. Interesting arguments on the lark I posted and I do agree that it could be tricky if you do not know the location of the photo. But, Kittykat got it spot on! It is indeed Stark's Lark, taken on the Tropic of Capricorn in Namibia. So, over to her for the next one!!

[kittykat23uk]

The words, rod and own back spring to mind. Oh well how about something coastal?

 

PA155216 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

 

By the way, does anoyne else think GW bears a striking resemblance to Brian Blessed in his new avatar??!

Edited June 11, 2012 by kittykat23uk

[Game Warden]

Stand by my hawkmen...