GAME: name that bird!

[lmSA84]

3 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

 

And there I was thinking that you just guessed it was for the trip I just got back from...

 

Haha! It did actually occur to me the following morning that you were in Japan recently. At the time I remember you posting previous birds from China so I think that's what might have jogged my memory. 

[lmSA84]

@offshorebirder - you're too good for me - Chestnut backed it is! Over to you

[offshorebirder]

Sorry for the delay everyone, especially @lmSA84 - I have been offline a couple of days. 

 

Darn - I got caught with no images in mind.  Y'all will probably guess this one quickly.

 

Let's try this one of a bird carrying nesting material:

 

 

[inyathi]

@offshorebirder I'm pretty sure I've never seen this bird, so I'm not at all certain as I can't see much colour on it, but I'll take a guess and say is it a purple martin?

[offshorebirder]

 

 

You're on the right track, but I'm afraid not @inyathi.  

 

One clue is that this bird's tail is more deeply forked than a Martin's would be.  And the notch is V-shaped, rather than U-sharped like a Martin would show.  That goes for European and African Martin species as well - I am not sure about Asian ones.  

 

[lmSA84]

@offshorebirder - I have a feeling this is one of your Kenyan photos, to which I have never been, but I'm going to have guess at Black Saw-wing?

[inyathi]

On 3/22/2018 at 7:18 PM, inyathi said:

I'm pretty sure I've never seen this bird, so I'm not at all certain as I can't see much colour on it, but I'll take a guess and say is it a purple martin?

 

@offshorebirder I knew my answer was completely wrong as there's no purple on the bird but couldn't think of anything else at the time and now I feel like a complete idiot because @lmSA84 is correct this is a black saw-wing and I have just seen some of these birds very recently I won't say where and give away where I've been in case I eventually get one right, so much for thinking I'd never seen this bird, for some reason I got it into my head that it was an American species that got me nowhere but as I didn't have any of my African books next to my computer and have been a bit too busy to think about it seriously I didn't get further than that. I don't think this does my reputation as a birder much good, I'll be laughing about this for a little while, I don't have any shots of these swallows but I might have some on video, they fly so darn fast that to get a great shot like this is pretty impressive.

[offshorebirder]

Sorry for the delay everyone.  

 

Yes @lmSA84 - you got it right - a Black Saw-wing.  It is carrying nesting material that it had just picked up beside the salt lick hide at Encounter Mara camp.    Multiple birds were coming in to gather nesting material and that is the only shot that was halfway decent out of a couple of dozen I attempted.

 

No problem @inyathi - I often have trouble identifying "easy" birds from photos.   I have even more trouble with "in-the-hand" photos from bird banders / ringers.   Birds have very strange looking shapes/postures when not perched or flying naturally.

 

Over to you @lmSA84.

[lmSA84]

Thanks @offshorebirder - I haven't been to Kenya but I saw a beautiful flock of them in Kirstenbosch Garden, Cape Town.

 

@inyathi - tough luck - if it's any consolation I still think your reputation is in tact !

 

Not much mystery in this one

 

[inyathi]

@lmSA84 Having embarrassed myself with that last one, I thought I would wait and see if someone else might have a go, since no one has, I’ll risk embarrassing myself again and take a guess. On the assumption that these are African birds and that you might have visited Zambia I’m going to suggest chestnut-backed sparrow-weavers, but that could be completely wrong.

 

I haven’t looked too hard at birds outside Africa but I can’t think of anything of the top of my head that looks quite like this.

[lmSA84]

@inyathi - soo close! You got three of the four words right....this bird is actually found in a band stretching across Western, Northern Central and Eastern Africa. This photo was taken in Gambia 

[Dave Williams]

It's a Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-weaver. @inyathi deserves the credit!  Having been to TG many times, this one has eluded me so far.

[inyathi]

@lmSA84 

Drat I’m really not on my ‘A game’ at the moment, that’s another bird I’ve just seen very recently somewhere and worse than that I’ve got reasonably decent photos of it. On top of that, I have to say having looked at my book again that of course it isn’t chestnut-backed because the face markings are brown, whereas on the chestnut-backed they should be black. At least this time I was very close to being right so maybe next time I'll be bang on. 

 

Thanks @Dave Williams 

 

Have a go at this one. 

 

 

[kittykat23uk]

I shall take a wild guess and say Ferruginous babbler. 

[inyathi]

@kittykat23uk Interesting suggestion I can certainly see the similarity, but I'm afraid you are out by some miles.  

[Dave Williams]

These ID tests are a good way to learn but if you haven't a clue which continent they were taken it's difficult to start investigating the guide books looking for ideas.

Maybe a continent should be declared.... mind you I don't have books for most countries anyway.

 

[Atdahl]

Hmmm...it kind of looks like a Bulbul.  But, maybe I have Borneo on the brain and it doesn't really look like anything in that book. But, I will try Buff-vented Bulbul.

 

I like the continent idea too...maybe a habitat clue would help as well.

 

Alan

[inyathi]

@Atdahl Along the right lines but again you are miles out you won't find this bird which has a certain fondness for foliage in the jungles of Borneo.

 

 

[Dave Williams]

If there is another clue intended in that, what about a Loveleaf ?!

[janzin]

yeah honestly I sort of gave up on these quizzes because without even a clue of a continent its just too difficult, especially if its one you have little familiarity with. Or may not even have a guidebook for!

 

I vote for adding the continent (no need to drill down to country--that would probably make it too easy

 

 

[lmSA84]

@inyathi - I’m assuming @Dave Williams already got it and it’s Red-tailed Leaflove? 

Edited April 10, 2018 by lmSA84

[kittykat23uk]

10 hours ago, inyathi said:

@kittykat23uk Interesting suggestion I can certainly see the similarity, but I'm afraid you are out by some miles.  

 

LBJs aren't really my forte!

[inyathi]

@kittykat23uk LBJ's aren't really my forte either and the African greenbuls and this is one of that family do look pretty like some of the Asian bulbuls and even babblers like you suggested, I hoped that everyone taking part would interpret the "miles out" as a clue to indicate that you were looking in the wrong part of the world. 

 

When this game became worldwide rather than solely African birds, I did worry that it might get too difficult, but that didn’t seem to be the case, although now and again it disappears for a good while. One problem has always been if you post something that’s relatively easy, so as not to make it too hard for the less serious birders, often someone will have posted the answer almost straight away before anyone else has seen that a new bird has been posted. I wouldn’t claim to be the greatest birder, but I do have the advantage that I have visited every continent except Antarctica at least once and I do have one or more books covering at least a portion of each continent. Having said that there are still whole regions I’ve never been to at all. I like to think that when I’m not having an off day as was the case with that swallow, that I can usually take a good punt at which continent a bird is from, just because I’ve looked through the books often enough, but I’m certainly not always right and even if I am right, it might be from a country that I’ve not been to and therefore not in any of the books that I have. When that’s the case if it’s say a Chinese bird, I’ve not been to China and don’t have a book, so I hope that I might find a closely related species in one of my Indian or South East Asian books that looks similar, I can then find out online if there are other species in the same genus and what they look like. I also always try and see if there are any clues in any vegetation that might be visible but there aren't always, certainly my latest photo could have been taken almost anywhere at least in the tropics or subtropics. If you haven’t travelled far and wide and don’t have the books or the time, then sometimes you’re really not going to have a clue and it will be very difficult. Of course, the other thing I like to do is see if people have revealed where they have been recently, that’s one reason why I don’t always give away where I’ve been, the other is I don't then feel I have to write a report. I do have a report in gestation but if and when it will appear I’m not sure.

 

I would suggest either post the photo with the name of the continent or post the photo first and then if no one gets it after a few days, post the name of the continent then, along with other clues. However, I am happy to go along with whatever anyone suggests, the one advantage in keeping it hard to begin with, is that participants have more time to look at it, but that could be counterproductive if it puts some less knowledgeable or less well travelled birders off. 

 

@Dave Williams I will give you that it's a leaf-love so I think it's over to you

 

@lmSA84 The name I have on my checklist is just leaf-love but in the Birds of Africa South of the Sahara it is called red-tailed leaf-love, looking online has confused me a bit, because I think quite recently the taxonomy was changed so it comes up with two different genus names, this probably happened after my bird book was published because mine is the old first edition, Stephenson and Fanshawe just call it leaf-love.

 

At some point I may post the leaf-love photo again elsewhere with the location.  

Edited April 11, 2018 by inyathi

[lmSA84]

@inyathi - thanks for the post. I don’t personally mind the current format with clues after 1-2 days but I understand if others would appreciate continents - so I’m happy to post with continents. 

 

I’m just working off Wikipedia and interestingly it seems as if there are three leaflove sub species - simple, red-tailed and yellow-throated.  I was actually going to guess common tailorbird until @Dave Williams nailed it - who I am assuming has seen the yellow-throated in Gambia? 

[Dave Williams]

@lmSA84 The only Leaflove I have seen is in my Gambian guide book! I wish they wouldn't mess about with the names though, I'm sure it's only to make birder's lists longer or to sell more guide books!

 

 

Here's my offering....from Asia,