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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Silverbird

On Sunday Grant and I drove along the mine road looking for... you guessed it! Birds.  It was mid-afternoon and the sun was baking down on the earth so there weren't many birds about. However, not long into the drive, I called for him to "stop!", which he did and we watched a beautiful Silverbird on the power lines above us.

This bird is unmistakable with silvery-grey upper parts and rufous underparts. The first time I saw this bird was while my friend Sue and I were birding in the Kenyan bush. At the time I only managed to photograph it from the back. This time here in Tanzania, I managed to get several clear and satisfactory photos of this incredible little bird. 
 Silverbird; no prizes for guessing where it gets its name!

 The Silverbird is found in dry bush areas or acacia woodlands

The Silverbird is locally endemic. It hawks for insects in the air, but while we watched on Sunday, this bird swooped down onto the ground to capture insect prey. 
 The Silverbird's song is a sweet, thrush-like song 

For more birds around the world, please click to Wild Bird Wednesday which you can access by clicking the link. 

 I hope you're all having a great week. 

11 comments:

  1. What a sweet bird, Jo. I'm so glad you got photos of its front!
    Luv, K

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  2. What a beauty. Reminds me of the western bluebirds I saw yesterday swooping to the ground for bugs.

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  3. Silverbird, huh???? Well---he's gorgeous but he's not SILVER.... Looks a little like our Robins, at least the colors...

    Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  4. he sure is a cute bird with his silver coat and orange chest. I always giggle when I read "underparts" as I nearly always misread it it as underpants. So he has rufous underpants.

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  5. Jo, your Silver bird is a beauty. Wonderful photos and sighting. Thanks for sharing your WBW! Have a happy day!

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  6. Well, that would have made my day! What a beautiful bird! Yet another species I've never seen. Thank you for sharing!

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  7. What an adorable, beautiful, little bird. Sounds like he was fun to watch.

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  8. Hi there - I'm back in the land of the living as a far as net access goes - but I'd rather still be on holiday!

    Nice looking bird. Well worth stopping for.

    Cheers and thanks for the link to WBW.

    Stewart M - Melbourne

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  9. I haven't seen much of the world so a photo like this is truly precious. You did a wonderful job of capturing your Silver Bird! It resembles (a little bit) the barn swallows that we have here (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

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