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GAME: name that bird!


Jochen

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After a recent trip to Etosha in Namiiba I have struggled to identify this bird, can anyone help please?

 

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My guess for this is a juvenile Gabar Goshawk - Melierax gabar

 

It is one of the few raptors with the combination of red/orange legs and yellow eye

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@@mvecht @@inyathi - you are both correct, it is the Rainbow Bee Eater - Damn, I knew I'd made it too easy.

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@@Kingfisher Safaris I'm not sure but my best guess would be something like a juvenile southern pale chanting goshawk Melierax canorus not all of the books illustrate juveniles so they can be pretty difficult to identify. If it's not then it is one of the goshawk family.

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@@Soukous

I will post a new challenge later today.

Isn`t the juvenile Gabar supposed to have yellow legs?

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@@mvecht according to Roberts guide,,,

 

Gabar Goshawk - JUV

"Upperparts brown, head and breast streaked brown, belly barred and rump white; eyes yellow, cere and legs orange. Dark morph like ad but with orange cere and legs."

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@@Soukous

Interesting.

www.arkive.org

has this description:

The cere and the legs are yellow in immature gabar goshawks and the plumage is generally browner, with the pale form having less tidy barring on the chest than the adult

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That's why I will never be a real bird expert @mvecht :(

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@@Soukous

A friend of mine in South Africa is a keen birder but is not into raptors at all for the same reason! They are just too confusing.

Lets stick to Bee-eaters!

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Try this one?

post-5254-0-04871400-1436280641_thumb.jpg

 

Bonus points for the following 2

post-5254-0-95275100-1436280766_thumb.jpg

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hint photographed in 3 different countries all very far apart

 

 

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the first one looks like a northern bald or waldrapp ibis Geronticus eremita

 

no idea what the other 2 are

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@@Soukous

Indeed it is a Northern Bald (Geronticus eremita) Ibis from the south of Spain photographed last Summer.

Looking forward to your next challenge.

 

PS lets see if someone else has an idea about the other two.

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as we've been discussing raptors it seems appropriate to make our next mystery bird a raptor.

 

I hope it is not quite as obvious as my previous post

 

post-43899-0-79193700-1436285643_thumb.jpg

 

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@@Soukous

I am taking a wild guess.

This looks very much like a Kite but not any of the kites I know from Europe and Africa.

Whistling Kite?

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@@mvecht whistling kite would be my guess too, as for your birds well the first one was easy I've seen northern bald ibis in Morocco the other two are much harder my first thought was that the second one is a tern chick of some sort but I'm going to guess and say is it a skimmer chick? The third one I'm confident is a thrush and unless it's my imagination the leaves in the background look like they might be a little bit frosty so I think it lives somewhere cold, this is another guess and probably completely wrong but I'm going to say is it Tickell's thrush Turdus unicolor? Or is Asia the wrong continent to be looking for it?

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@@inyathi

Wow, I am impressed.

It is indeed an African Skimmer chick.

For the last bird it is very good thinking. Asia is the right continent but it is a Turdus atrogularis or Black throated thrush.

The wintery background is because the photo was taken in Denmark where it is a rare vagrant. This particular bird however spent 3 winters in the same location!

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Got it first time. @@mvecht and @@inyathi

Too easy eh?

 

I'll have to try and find some birds from other continents.

 

This is a more familiar sight of the Whistling Kite

post-43899-0-97133700-1436294382_thumb.jpg

Edited by Soukous
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I am running out of tough ones so here is another juvenile raptor

post-5254-0-99954000-1436296177_thumb.jpg

 

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I'm going to go with Tawny Eagle, although the face is pretty pale.

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@@Soukous

I am starting to realise that these juvenile raptors can be very difficult so I can not claim to be 100% sure but I do believe that it is a different bird. As you mentioned the head is pale which should give a hint and maybe also the habitat?

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OK, then I'm thinking it must be a marsh harrier, probably a western marsh harrier - Circus aeruginosus

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@@Soukous

Interesting. When I saw the bird the guide told me it was an African Marsh Harrier.

Returning to camp I could not get it to match with my reference books and for a long time I thought it was a European Marsh Harrier just like you. Later I saw some Pictures as well as a drawing in a reference book that made me aware that it is most likely a juvenile African Marsh Harrier (Circus ranivorus).

However with the previous discussion about Hawks in mind I think we can agree that it a Marsh Harrier (Ranivorus or aeruginosus)

so you turn to post a Picture of a mystery bird.

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To be honest @@mvecht I struggled to decide between the African and European Marsh Harriers. In the end I chose European because all my books show the African juvenile with lighter plumage, particularly on the shoulders

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Not a raptor

 

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