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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Red-billed Quelea

Our bird feeder/s are attracting many birds; the feeder with chunks of fresh fruit and a tray of wild bird seed; and the feeder with only seed on the platform.

The Red-billed Quelea is one of the most abundant bird species in the world. Although the map next to this bird in my bird book shows (with highlighted shades) that it's a common breeding migrant, the text description says it's resident and highly gregarious!

The breeding male has most commonly a black face mask surrounded by a yellowish or pink ring. The red bill gives it its name. The female has greyish-brown head feathers, a white throat and red bill. In breeding season the female (as usual) hardly changes except for the bill and eye-ring which becomes dull yellow. 
Red-billed Quelea - how many males can you see here ? ( before you scroll to the next photo!)
Here a third male flew in and looks like it's challenging the male looking right. This one is partly obscured by the male on the edge of the feeder in the previous photo (with a yellowish band!)


In these last two photos it looks as though the male with the yellowish band won!

I'm linking my post to Wild Bird Wednesday here




7 comments:

  1. Hello Jo, the Red-billed Quelea is a beautiful feeder bird. You do have a lot of birds there at your feeder. Great shots! Enjoy your day!

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  2. That is a marvellous feeding station you have for the birds. I bet Grant made that for you. You are so fortunate to have so many of these birds stopping by your place. Are you getting back to doing the weekly Scavenger hunt Sunday? I cannot get my laptop to log on here on the I.O.W so I may not have one this Sunday but still working on it but as I am on " holidays ". And I use that word very loosely as I seem to be working harder here than at home, anyway, I have decided if I can get the post made, I will only have 1 shot for each word. Come on Jo, here are the words - Me, My grocery List, Baking, Kindness and Change of Seasons.

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  3. i would shoot myself silly with all the pretty birds to aim my camera at. love those rose colored bills

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  4. The Red-billed Quelea is well-named with such a strikingly bright red bill. You could hardly miss them on the bird table.

    I'm thinking it is related to the finches in some way so I am going to Google it and perhaps see if it jogs my memory about ever seeing them in Kenya many moons ago.

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  5. You posted the most abundant birds, and I posted one of the rarest - thats a nice coincidence!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  6. They're fabulous looking birds to have on your bird table. I'd like a few of them please :)

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo