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Barbet Masai Mara Dec. 2011 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jmercer
- Start date
jrawcliffe
Well-known member
Everything else looks right to me for D'Arnaud's Barbet. Perhaps the red is a bit variable?
Nice bird / photo.
Nice bird / photo.
The best feature (of not calling) is the colour of the beak - black in Usamiro and horn in D'Arnauld's. Then Usambiro never has a black cap or bib (only adult male D'Arnauld's does, mind) and, yes, it has less red. I can't really see the bill in this picture too well, nor the head and certainly not the bib! But from what I can see it could be a black bill with a bit of shine and doesn't seem to have any black on the head (like a female/juv d'Arnaud's). THese, combined with range suggest it's probably Usambiro.
Ah ha! The bill colour does vary slightly seasonally, with age and around the edge of the range. These look paler than some, but certainly not the pale horn on a breeding d'Arnauld's (I do think d'Arnauld's bills can be this grey too when not breeding, so it's a bit in between), but the two together clearly show a pair of Usambiro Barbets - male on the right. The emini race of d'Arnauld's is the one in southern Kenya and norther TZ and the male has a jet black cap and heavier bib. This, typical of Usambiro, shows a small black bib and no black cap at all.
So, looking around a little more: this image from the gallery shows a D'Arnauld's type: http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=84518 ?
Niels
Niels
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