About the Author

James Tyrrell

Alumni

James had hardly touched a camera when he came to Londolozi, but his writing skills that complemented his Honours degree in Zoology meant that he was quickly snapped up by the Londolozi blog team. An environment rich in photographers helped him develop the ...

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12 Comments

on What Bird is This? #5

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Marinda Drake
Master Tracker

Sedge warbler.

Dina Petridis
Senior Digital Ranger

can it be a thrush ??

Ann Richardson Berg
Digital Tracker

Hello James!
I think it is a Spotted Flycatcher, it is an adult. I can’t tell if it is a female or a male because both sexes are similar. Thank you for a fantastic blog!

Declan Porter
Explorer

I am calling it as a female Violet-backed Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster). Males are always a dead give away with the iridescent plum colour. Heavily streaked below points to the female. As they are breeding migrants it could also possibly be a juvenile but as I can’t see the eye colour and it might be a bit early in the season for a juvenile to be fully fledged I’ll stick with a female.

Really enjoying the challenges. It’s always nice to brush up the migrant birding skills when they start arriving back.

Maggy Sewell
Explorer

What was the previous bird? was it a dark chanting goshawk? I can’t find the answers

Ian Maclarty
Guest contributor

Hi James,
Off the bat it looks like a female Violet-backed Starling but the light on the pic is not that great in the throat area, so it could be a male bird in transitional plumage. The belly stripes, angle of the leg to the body, length of the leg and very shallow angle between beak and forehead are what I am relying on. Also, as far as I can see the back coloration fits. How about sending the raw file so we can play with the light to get a view of what you saw through your binoculars, or would that spoil the fun?

Denise Vouri
Guest contributor

Yikes! This is not much of a clue….. I’m going to have to find another bird book.

Tom Rawles
Guest contributor

Groundscraper Thrush.

Gawie Jordaan
Master Tracker

James, It looks like a Violet-Backed Starling Female.

Kelley Boston
Explorer

Female violet-backed starling is my guess.

James Tyrrell
Alumni

Hi Everyone,

Some good guesses here, a number of which are correct.
The answer will be revealed in this Friday’s Week in Pictures…

Callum Evans
Master Tracker

Well, it’s very streked and it has a short bill. I would say either female violet-backed starling or spotted flycatcher. The former is more likely in my mind.

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