Day 6
Burchell's vs Meve's?
Sitting having lunch with guests in Okaukeujo one day, we saw a lot of starlings, but one stood out: longer legs, longer tail and no red eyes. What on earth was it? Could it be a Meve's starling? We quickly decided it was, and we were quite happy with this sighting... until I met another birder in Okaukeujo. I asked him what interesting birds he had seen. He said he had seen a Burchell's starling. Hmmmm. After a lot of back and forth about the real identity and a few visits to Okaukeujo, I managed to photograph this particular bird and identify it by its call. Definitely a Burchell's starling. It seems to be the only one in Okaukeujo, right on the edge of it's natural range.
Anyways, herewith our list for day six of our "Big Year". Something else of interest is that we only saw the lappet-faced Vulture on day six. This does seem to correspond with the general consensus that their numbers are dwindling. The photo below was taken by a camera trap that we put up at a carcass of an unfortunate steer that died of rabies. We counted upwards of 40 white-backed vultures there at any one time, but even at the busiest time we only ever counted 6 lappet-faced vultures. There were around 4 or 5 tagged birds of both species, but unfortunately we put the camera too far away and couldn't identify the birds.
Burchell's vs Meve's?
Sitting having lunch with guests in Okaukeujo one day, we saw a lot of starlings, but one stood out: longer legs, longer tail and no red eyes. What on earth was it? Could it be a Meve's starling? We quickly decided it was, and we were quite happy with this sighting... until I met another birder in Okaukeujo. I asked him what interesting birds he had seen. He said he had seen a Burchell's starling. Hmmmm. After a lot of back and forth about the real identity and a few visits to Okaukeujo, I managed to photograph this particular bird and identify it by its call. Definitely a Burchell's starling. It seems to be the only one in Okaukeujo, right on the edge of it's natural range.
Anyways, herewith our list for day six of our "Big Year". Something else of interest is that we only saw the lappet-faced Vulture on day six. This does seem to correspond with the general consensus that their numbers are dwindling. The photo below was taken by a camera trap that we put up at a carcass of an unfortunate steer that died of rabies. We counted upwards of 40 white-backed vultures there at any one time, but even at the busiest time we only ever counted 6 lappet-faced vultures. There were around 4 or 5 tagged birds of both species, but unfortunately we put the camera too far away and couldn't identify the birds.
Sightings from day 6 (21st July)
67. African Hoopoe(E)
68. Lappet Faced Vulture(E)
70. Cinnamon-chested rock-bunting (E)
71. Chat Flycatcher (E)
72. Sabota Lark
73. Little Swift (E)
74. Burchell's starling (E)
75. Crimson-breasted Shrike (E)
76. Spike-heeled Lark (E)
77. Black-chested Snake-Eagle (E)
We'll try to be a bit more prompt with writing our next post!
Rachel and Danie
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