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Here's another one that's puzzling me. Taken at Shingwedzi.

That is an Imm Starling, Possibly glossy starling.

Yeah it definitely is a juv Glossy Starling but I have no idea whether it is Cape Glossy or Greater Blue-eared. I'm not even sure if they can be separated.

Latly i have been getting my ID's right

wow

Thanks Batmad and deefstes but in that case, according to the books, it should have straw-coloured eyes? No possibility of Black-bellied Starling? Wrong locality I suppose.

No...it is definatly not a black bellied starling. Black bellied starlings are not found in Kruger.

Jacliz, the Black-bellied is a coastal forest species, hence you won't find it there. It is between juv/imm Cap and juv/imm Greater Blue-eared. As Deefstes said, it's probably not possible to distinguish these two in juv stage, especially as light plays a major role in how these glossy Starlings appear... But imm Greater Blue-eared is described as "dull brownish black" whereas Cape Glossy is described as "similar to adult, but duller". So I'm going to take a stab and call it a juv Cape Glossy Starling.

BTW, the eye will be dark in the juv, not straw-coloured. It only changes colour as a sub-adult.

Juv. Cape Glossy it is then. Thanks Moegaai. Wow, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started photographing birds!

Not entirely true BM. There have been reports from the far south of Kruger. I think there are actually some forumites with pics if I remember correctly.

According to Newman's Birds of Kruger there had been quite a few reports, especially from the towns of Malelane and Komatipoort. Stands to reason that they could also be found north of the Crocodile river then.

Interesting

Thanks Johann

I was looking in my Roberts bird guide of Kruger and it says that they do not occur in Kruger
Shows how sometimes bird guides can be wrong

Maybe. Could also be that people had mis-identified the bird in the past.

Johann, amazed to find out the Black-bellied can potentially be found there (presumably in the south, though?). Always took the Black-bellied as coastal forest species.

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works re the juv Cape Glossy Starling ID I made. Knew I had a pic of sub-ad GBES somewhere, just found it:

Imm to sub-adult Greater Blue-eared Starling: You can see the dark cheek and lighter eye coming through, but look at the dark-grey underparts and greenish upperparts!



So with this I retract my initial ID and leave it between the two!!!

And that orange gape of Jacliz's bird shows it's still a real youngster.

Yes, like mentioned in my earlier post, only in the far south. The areas surrounding Malelane and Komatipoort (Croc bridge). It is believed that it might have moved into the area from Mozambique moving down the Crocodile river, so I won't expect to see it far away from the river.

I don't know too much about habitat types etc but I do know they are found in Mkhuze. Yes, it is much further south but also still quite a distance from the coast.

A I right in thinking this is a Spotted Flycatcher, it was seen in Kruger in Feb/Mar.
Thanks.

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