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Anyone want a go at this one - taken in Mombo camp okavango by a friend - Dick Volz

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I see the enthusiasm on this one is boiling over

looks like a flycatcher............But

Have seen these extremely shy ducks in a vlei on the gravel road from Orpen to Talamati on Wednesday. The male flew away into the tall grasses.
Think it might be Garganey??? What do you think?

Is it possible for someone to ID this nightjar, although pic is showing the bottom side of the bird - roadkill!!!

Looks like Imm. Comb Duck and a Female Fiery-Necked Nightjar Yolande Pity about the road kill

Yup, most potential Garganeys end up as Comb Duck like this one. Not going to burn my fingers on the nightjar. RJ, your IDs are usually pretty good but we're lacking some explanation here!

Eish, I'm not sure that Nightjar is very identifiable but I'm curious why you say Fiery-necked? I just thought the chest looks very grey for Fiery-necked which might point towards Rufous-cheeked. I'm saying "might" because I really can't see enough on the bird to ID it as anything and Fiery-necked would be the more likely candidate for that region.

The duck definitely is a juvie Comb Duck. They are notorious for impersonating Garganey but the bulgy bill gives it all away. Garganey is a very dainty looking duck, more like Yellow-billed or African Black Duck in terms of their general shape and size.

Getting back to the Nightjar I have to say that there are few things that irk me like seeing a Nightjar roadkill in Kruger (and I've seen disturbingly many). There is one reason and one reason only why a Nightjar would turn up dead on a KNP road and that is because someone was speeding on that road and seeing as Nightjars are typically active at night, chances are that it was a parks official who killed that bird.

If a visitor to a park had killed an animal or bird due to speeding I would want him to be barred from entry into any of the SANParks for the rest of his life. But what do you do when it's a park official? Aaarrrggghh!!!!

Judging by how white the underparts are, I would go for Marico Flycatcher.

Thanks Deefstes, JoelR and RJ for the id's!
About the roadkill, my thought is that it is Sanpark staff. You should see those guys coming into Maroela camp at night to drop the people from the nightdrives! And in the Caracal threat I see people complaining about several caracal roadkills at Orpen too.
Overall, people are speeding far to much in Kruger. Take the dead lioncub roadkill this week for instance! These people should be asked to leave the park immediately!

Hi Imax ,

I’m not sure it’s lack of enthusiasm , but maybe rather a matter of people not knowing what this bird is…!



I’m puzzled myself , and looking in the field guides I was even a bit sceptical of Joel’s suggestion. However , after having searched the internet for photos of marico flycatcher , I now think I agree. There seems to be quite some regional and/or individual variation to this drab little bird.

The two areas that made me sceptical initially were the very obvious black lores and whitish edgeing to the alula ad wing coverts. I haven’t found any pictures with such prominent dark lores as on this one , but some come close. Surprisingly some don’t seem to have them at all , and then there are the ones in between. The same can be said about the pale/white edges , and the very big variation in these two areas can make extreme individuals look surprisingly different from each other. Every other character seems to fit with marico flycatcher , so that might well be what it is.

Jon

This little fellow has so many markings on him, it should be dead easy to ident him. I just managed through bushes to catch a couple of photos with lots of cropping. Taken at Vredefort Dome outside Parys this morning.

I have paged my book till it is dog eared. (Maybe I am just too tired to think anymore - it's been a l-o-n-g day.... )

Looks like a Juv Klaases Cuckoo

Try a female or at least still juv Diederik Cuckoo

Looks like a young Diderick Cuckoo, waiting for his mini parents to feed him!