African birds - Thrush, Hoopoe and others

African Hoopoe, makes a call similar to hoepoe name!.This guy is tough to catch, has a beautifull crown...hunts by poking into the soft ground.

Karoo thrush...

White-backed mousebird, a personal favorate, skiddish and one of 3 species. This one has a white cross on the back when it flies.

another pic

they can hang around like this - actually most of the time they sit/hang in strange ways!

Just for fun...a flying honey bee

Nice African Hoopoe - much darker orange body/head and more white on the wing, compared to Hoopoes in Europe. Some books treat it as a separate species Upupa africana.

Resin

From the other end of Africa (Morocco) . . .

Moussier's Redstart

Ooops! Forgot the pic!

Common Bulbul (you should get these in South Africa too)

House Bunting

Resin, we have 3 similar bulbuls, red-eye, cape and black-eye (the one you call common). We also call them "botter-gat", or direct english "butter-behind", because they have a buttery colour lower rump!

Yeah, suspect Common Bulbul is going to get split into several species once the molecular taxonomists get round to it, with yours becoming Black-eyed Bulbul Pycnonotus layardi. The Moroccan race/species (nominate P. barbatus) doesn't have that pale rump, nor yellow undertail.

Resin

Beautiful & interesting birds Little_things & Resin. Love to see birds I've never even heard of; like the Mousebird. Love the Hoopoe. I had a friend email a picture of one from France once. I printed it out and have it sitting on my desk.

Great pics guys! I love the Hooppe and the Redstart!

The third photo of the mousebird and the honey bee are worthy of . . . captions!

That African Hoopoe is an interesting looking bird! Great shot of the redstart Little.

Wow! Thanks both of you! It's always great to see birds and animals from other parts of the world.

Oh my, I want to pet that mousebird. Nice pic on the bee, too fun. And I'm with Angel, love the Hoopoe. I think I'll have to see that bird someday. Thanks for the dreams, Resin and Little.

Thanks guys - Resin, love your additions...I will try a get some pics of the other 2 species of mousebird, they all reside in our area...but we do not see them all that often. The hoopoe, I will try and catch with that crown open...that will be a great pic. We have the red-eye bulbul here as well, so I have work to do...I guess it looks strange for non-birders this guy creeping around, looking for things (birds). Problem is these mentioned birds are not exactly waiting for a photo, they see you, they are gone.

Very nice!

Red-eye bulbul - Resin you can see what I ment by butter! I will get a better pic at some stage....promise!

Yellow under-tail coverts, yep!

Spectacled Bulbul (southern Turkey) is also yellow there. The Common Bulbuls in Morocco are white there, though.

Resin

Resin - very interesting discussion (notes), I can deduct that you are above average bird watcher. I look forward to many more. We are less "clued up", and well the many books we have are more locally orientated, practical exp. and discussions are much more interesting and "learn on the go". Thanks.

Little, you will likely learn more about birds on this forum than you will from books. We have the advantage of not being area specific, and some very knowledgable folks on board.

Two years ago, I had a bird I couldn't identify. When it came through again last spring I was able to ID it because of my activity on this forum. The Great-tailed Grackle is only recorded about 5 times a year in Oregon. The second year I knew it was a grackle after seeing images here. Though the images I got were very bad, they provided positive ID. My local Ranger Station was pleased indeed with my documentaton.

Tigerlily, I would have been wonderfull to have an additional "birdfiles" to DG. Think about that potential!

Nice to see more of your birds Little, waiting for that Hoopoe shot! Lol.

Your flying bee is a Syrphid fly, more precisely I feel sure an Eristalis sp. They hover.

wallaby - WHAAT! - haha...I am no expert on that at all....none, nothing...LOL...good on ya! I will just say thanks and humbly stick to the other stuff....pretty impressive from your side.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2008 5:42 AM

Lol, I take pics of them hovering, lost the ones from last year in a crash but I have a pic on the Photos forum somewhere if I could find it! Notice those antennae hanging off the face, it has the typical Eristalis tail shape too.

See how much we learn just from this forum that would not necessarily be in the books? I feel that the books have given me 10% of the knowledge that I will need to identify "my" birds, all of the rest have come from here and conversations with birders and wildlife folk.