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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Bulletin 341 - South Africa #18 - Part 1 - Bulbuls and other songbirds, antelope, lion

I had an amazing 2 week trip to South Africa and scored almost 280 new species of birds as well as fantastic mammals and a few reptiles. My guide Casper Badenhorst was outstanding. You can see his web site here. He can be contacted through the web site or if you want his email it is info@birdingandwildlifesafaris.com. I recommend him highly as he showed me so many rare birds and animals. I will use him again when I go to Southern Africa. 

Bulbuls are a large family of medium sized songbirds in Africa and Asia. I first encountered them in China last March where I photographed 7 species. I found another 4 new ones on this trip. The 8" Dark-capped Bulbul (Pycnonotus tricolor) is a brown bird with light underside and dark brown face, The vent is yellow. Sexes are similar. I thought this was a cute photo with the pair sitting side-by-side.

Dark-capped Bulbul

 The 8" Terrestrial Brownbul  (Phyllastrephus terrestris) ha a reddish brown back, a white throat and red eye.

Terrestrial Brownbul

The 9" Yellow-bellied Greenbul (Chlorocichla flaviventris) had an olive back, yellowish underside and white eye arcs.

Yellow-bellied Greenbul

The 7.5"  Sombre Greenbul (Andropadus importunus) is olive above, pale below and he has a white eye.

Sombre Greenbul

Babblers are songbirds in several different families. The 9" Arrow-marked Babbler (Turdoides jardineii) is in the laughingthrush family. They forage on the ground in leaf litter. it is a gray-brown bird with spotted breast and yellow eye.

Arrow-marked Babbler

The 4" Cape White-eye (Zosterops capensis) is of course in the white-eye family. It is olive above with a yellow throat and bright white eye ring.

Cape White-eye

The estrildid finch family is a large (141 species) family of small colorful songbirds, many of which are used in the pet trade. All the rest of the birds in this bulletin are in this family.

The 5" male Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba) is olive above and on the breast, with a gray and red head, and black streaked underside.

Green-winged Pytilia - male

Twinspots all have black undersides with white pots. The 4" male Green Twinspot (Mandingoa nitidula) has an olive back and red face.

Green Twinspot - male

The 4.5" male Pink-throated Twinspot (Hypargos margaritatus) has a brown back and pink face and breast. He also has a bright blue eye ring.

Pink-throated Twinspot - male

Firefinches are all reddish. The 4" male African Firefinch (Lagonostcita rubricata) has a brown back, red underparts and pink face with a bluish bill.

African Firefinch - male

Continued on part 2