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Yes, it's a juvenile Glossy Starling, probably Cape Glossy Starling but I don't think Greater Blue-eared can be ruled out based on just this one picture. These are the kind of birds that one usually identifies by association with the company it keeps.

Thanks, Dabchick and deefstes. It was the dark eyes that was confusing me. There were other starlings around but these were not with them.

Can someone please help me with the id of these two???

Hi Pumbaa.
Where were these pictures taken? The top one could possibly be a rattling cisticola . The bird in the second photograph is perched in a buffalo thorn (Ziziphus micronata) and could possibly be a female White-winged Widowbird?

Hopefully someone else will have more clarity.

good luck

Hi guys,

Here is another bird that I would like to confirm. Is it a Cape Turtle-Dove?
Photo's taken in my garden in Bloemfontein this afternoon. What is interesting to me is the white tail feathers.

Cape Turtle-Dove for sure... I think it lost some of its tailfeathers somehow leaving the outer two that have more white in them than the rest.

Thanks Roan - Both pictures have been taken in Kruger in February and I confirm with you the second one is a female white-winged widowbird as he was not far away.

Once more thanks

Any guidance on this bird, photographed in the Southern Free State in Early January?

That's a tough one Scottm, but it looks like it has white outer-tail feathers, so I'll go with African Pipit.

This tern was spotted on the Crocodile River in the Broederstroom area over the Easter weekend. Was on its own and two weeks later there was no sign of it.
Is an ID possible from these photos?

Hi naomi c. It looks like a white-winged tern.
Hope this helps.

Thx Roan! Whitewinged tern is a lifer for me!

Hello Bird Freaks ,

Just came back from a great SA trip (went well over 200 species of birds in just 9 days), I've got some ID problems and hope the people on this forum can help to ID the birds

The first one is taken in Mokala NP last week;

I'm doubting between Sentinel and Short-toed rock-trush, I think it's Sentinel but the whitish Eye ring is what's making me doubt. Hope you can help! Thank you up front!

More to follow

Hi Maurice and welcome
I'd go with a Sentinel Rock-Thrush. Unfortunately the front of the bird is not visible, which would have helped a lot.
The bird in the photo's colour is a lot more bluish than grey (like the Short-toed Rock-thrush)

Thank you for your help (and welcome ) Roan, lets see what others think of it.....

Going true my pictures of that day I found another rock thrush (so same day, different bird) and wanted to compare the white eye ring with this one (I got the eye ring idea from the pictures in the Complete Photographic Field Guide Birds of SA - Sinclair & Ryan) and found out that this one doesn't have the white eye ring. Although the pale crown isn't really visible, the blue grey throat doesn't extend to the breast, so that makes this a Short Toed Rock Thrush?

Both Sentinel and Short-Toed in 1 day a couple of km from each other?