Bulletin 366 - Uganda #10 - Sunbirds, oxpecker

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.

As I have spent more time in Asian and Africa, I appreciate the beauty of the sunbirds, as I am getting more species and better photos. These songbirds are tiny nectar feeders and many are brilliantly colorful. They are as delightful and occupy the same ecological niche as our hummingbirds.

So here are the 7 species I photographed in Uganda. I will start with the plainest and continue to the most beautiful to hold your attention - haha. All these were lifers.

The tiny 3.5" Little Green Sunbird (Anthreptes seimundi) is plain dull olive. The sexes are similar and it is only 1cm longer then the smallest sunbird.

Little Green Sunbird

The 9" male Bronzy Sunbird (Nectarina kilimensis) has a green head, bronze patches on neck and dark body. He has a long tail which accounts for most of his length.

Bronzy Sunbird - male

The female is only 5" and she is olive and yellow with a white eye stripe.

Bronzy Sunbird - female

The 5" male Blue-headed Sunbird (Cyanomitra alinae) has a blue head and chest with an ochre back and tail.

Blue-headed Sunbird

The 4.5" male Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) is green with a blue chest and yellow belly.

Variable Sunbird - male

Next is the 4.5" male  Red-chested Sunbird (Cinnyris erythrocerca). He has a green head, blue back and red chest.

Red-chested Sunbird - male

Next to last is the 6" male Beautiful Sunbird (Cinnyris pulchellus). I am not even going to try to describe his colors..just enjoy his beauty.

Beautiful Sunbird - male

And the last one must be the king of all sunbirds, as he is called the Regal Sunbird (Cinnyris regius). Again - just enjoy his beauty. He is 4.5" in length.

Regal Sunbird - male

There are 2 species of oxpeckers. I already saw 1 in my initial Africa trip. Here is the other, the 8.5" Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus). It is a brown bird with a yellow bill with a red tip. Here is a flock waiting for an animal to come by.

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

And here is one on the head of a buffalo.

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

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

I have photos of 20 of the 145 species of sunbirds

I have photos of 2 of the 2 species of  oxpeckers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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