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GO!, Dabchick, GO!

I'm really keen to see what you come up with!

I haven't promised anything

This infers that you will try until you do?

I'm pretty sure it's a Puffback. If you look closely you'll see the eye is brown, it's just the shadow over the face makes it look black. Young Puffbacks can have some white on the outer-tail and also do have grey, not black, backs. Check some of the pics posted on this thread of young Puffbacks viewtopic.php?t=23250 they really do look like this bird. I've also seen young Puffbacks myself, in the field, that look exactly like this. I've seen quite a few variations in young Puffbacks that aren't described in the filed guides, I even saw (and photographed) one in Botswana with an orange breast! There's really not much else it could be.

Oh, my goodness, but you ARE a spoil-sports, MattAxel...

I was REALLY looking forward to enjoying dabchick's journey of discovery

Couldn't you detect the massive tongue-in-cheek?

Oooof really didn't detect the tongue-in-cheek there JvR. Thought you were also disagreeing with my ID and sending Dabchick on a wild shrike chase. Haha sorry about that.

Thanks MattAxel!

This saves me a lot of effort

No Problem Dabchick, at least I helped someone out. You can't please everyone hey

Hi forum members. I need some help here with Id'ing the birds I took photos of - am doing so well on the bird ID challenge but I can't ID my own pics!?

These are pics of birds I took outside Bela Bela in Limpopo:

Could this be a flycatcher of sorts - maybe a chat flycatcher?


This one also looks like a thrush of sorts? Taken in Nov 2011


Looks like a yellow throated petronia? Pity you can't see the front


Could these be red billed queleas?


I battle with the starlings and can't identify which one this is...



This was take at Nambithi game reserve outside Ladysmith in Natal - sorry for the poor quality! Can't find this in my bird book - taken in Dec 2010 and the bird was near water. Looks soooo familiar...


Thanks for the help!!

Hi again

Does anyone know what pigeon this is - it was taken at Austin Roberts bird sanctuary in Pretoria May 2012?


Could it be a feral pigeon? I see some of them are white?

Thanks

@tosha I'm going to take a crack here. #1&2 are both Familiar Chat, #3 Streaky-headed Seedeater, #4 Red-billed Quelea, #5 Cape Glossy Starling or could be a Greater Blue-eared Starling, #6. Pin-tailed Whydah

As for your second post, an almost white Feral Pigeon or Common Pigeon

I also feel that no 5 is the Greater Blue-eared Starling, the rest thumbs up

Excellent - thanks ladybirder and ross hawkins - 7/7

Please excuse my ignorance (I'm a new birder), and now that I've consulted my books and found the birds, the familiar chats in the 2 pictures look like different birds to me. The eye ring in the first pic is more prominent and the belly in the second looks more flecked and not as light underneath. Would you know why this is - could the second one be a juvenile or female?

I get the greater blue-eared starling and the whydah. Was totally off track on the latter!

Thank you so much again!

@ tosha The eye ring does stand out in the first pic and is not mentioned in Robert's notes at all, so can't comment here. Your pic in #2 is of an adult bird, possibly two different races?

Hope this helps

Ross

Whilst visiting Itaka island in Cape Town, I saw this bird in the reeds eating the seeds. I initially thought it was a weaver of some sorts, but when downloading my photo's and consulting 3 bird books, the closest I got was 'lemon breasted canary' which you find in Mosambique and the north eastern part of SA. I will appreciate some help with the identification, that is if it is not a lemon-breasted canary.