A truly superb bird

As promised earlier this week, I'm posting a few photos of one of the birds we saw on Sunday. I will post about the many others later on.

During our birding morning, I'd spotted an obscur-ish little brown bird with long legs and a strong pointed beak sitting on a rock. Grant stopped and I managed to take more than a dozen photos of this bird.

Now I need to explain something here. I love all the birds we look for, look at and see: doves, pigeons, swallows, swifts, martins, starlings, sparrows, weavers, canaries, cisticolas, prineas, wheatears, mousebirds, barbets, bee-eaters, kingfishers, flycatchers, sunbirds, shrikes, robins, thrushes, wagtails, tinkerbirds, woodpeckers,  bulbuls,  orioles, owls and all other raptors, storks, water birds and dozens more. Grant, on the other hand, looks out for and loves barbets, tinkerbirds, woodpeckers, wagtails, sunbirds, flycatchers, shrikes,  bee-eaters, kingfishers, storks, owls and large eagles. When I squeal and point to a bird not on his list of "interesting and colourful" birds, he says, "Oh, it's just a little brown bird" (known as LBB's in birders' language)  and drives on.

However, on our way back to camp on Sunday, I spotted this LBB . Grant did stop and I did get a number of very clear photos. I've mentioned before in my bird posts, that I always send the photos to my sister-in-law,  an excellent birder who normally identifies our "mystery" birds by cell phone or e-mail. I was thrilled that I had these photos to send to her (which I did and which she identified, but I'll post about this interesting bird later) Said SIL also says she loves seeing the birds in different parts of Africa through our eyes.

In time the LBB flew off and before I even lowered my camera, another strikingly beautiful bird took its place on the rock. A starling. Not just any starling: the Superb starling, East Africa's best-known starling, arrived to give me a show. The first photos display only the iridescent blue-green of this bird but when Superb Starling number one had had enough, he flew off and another immediately Superb Starling took its place. It posed beautifully while I clicked away. To me (ever the romantic) it was as if the first starling saw me photographing the LBB and as soon as it could, it also came into the spotlight and demanded my attention. As soon as the first starling finished its act, as if waiting in the wings,  the next one took its place.

S T R E T C H a wing

A good shake to settle the feathers

Ewgh! Scratching an ear while doing a balancing act

Preen the ole chest-hairs!

One off! That's it, folks 

 Enter the real star: the Superb Starling poses for the camera

Isn't he beautiful?

For more beautiful birds around the world, click here