Bulletin 364 - Uganda #8 - Bulbuls and crows

After the week in the Capetown area, the guide Casper Badenhorst, and I flew to Uganda and met a local guide. We started at Entebbe Airport on the southeast corner of Uganda and made a diagonal trip to Murchison Falls NP in the northwest corner. From there, we proceeded south through a chain of nature preserves and parks to the southwest corner at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We finished along the southern border back to the airport.

Bulbuls are a large old world family of birds so almost anywhere in Africa or Asia, you can find several species. The 7" Dark-capped Bulbul (Pycnonotis tricolor) is all brown except for a white belly and yellow vent.

Dark-capped Bulbul

The 8.5" Yellow-throated Leaflove (Atimastillas flavicollis) is lighter brown above with a yellow throat and light underside. Where do they make up these bird names? Leaflove??? really.

Yellow-throated Leaflove

Many of the bulbul family in Africa are mostly olive colored and are called greenbuls. The 7" Mountain Greenbul (Arizelocichla nigriceps) is olive with a gray head and white eyeline.

Mountain Greenbul

The 7" Toro Olive Greenbul (Phyllastrephus hypochloris) is plain drab olive-brown, so best IDed by voice.

Toro Olive Greenbul

The smaller 6.5" White-throated Greenbul (Phyllastrephus albigularis) has an olive body, gray head and white throat.

White-throated Greenbul

The most colorful of the bulbul family is the 8.5" Red-tailed Bristlebill (Bleda syndactylus). This bird is olive above and yellow below . He has a red eye and a patch of blue skin around the eye.

Red-tailed Bristlebill

There were 3 members of the crow family I photographed in Uganda - one of them was a lifer. The 18" Pied Crow (Corvus albus) is a beautiful black and white crow.

Pied Crow

The 22" White-necked Raven (Corvus albicollis) is all black with a white patch on the nape of his neck. He has a massive black bill with a white tip.

White-necked Raven

The new bird for me was the 14" Piapiac (Ptilostomus afer). This bird is all black bodied bird with a long tail and red eye.. The wings and tail are grayish brown.It is found on the ground, following large mammals. It catches insects disturbed by the animals.

Piapiac

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 21 of the 153 species of bulbuls

I have photos of 43 of the 134 species of crows, jays and magpies

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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