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Variable Sunbird or other? Ethiopia Feb 3 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jstanleyg
- Start date
I don't think it's Variable, as this is what the eclipse (or juvenile?) male should look like:
http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/1943/31612
Can you give a more exact location, so we can try to narrow the field down?
http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/1943/31612
Can you give a more exact location, so we can try to narrow the field down?
Valéry Schollaert
Respect animals, don't eat or wear their body or s
Almost all immatures males sunbirds have dark throat ( I would say all, but my memory is not a computer and can forget some exceptions
).Here what is important is dark band on the face (from lores to ear-coverts), supercilium, pale malar stripe. Variable varies indeed, but never shows that.
Other sunbird species that might occur according to the Avibase checklist for Addis are Scarlet-chested, Taccaze, Malachite, Beautiful, Mariqua, Shining and Copper. If you're not familiar with those species (which I'm not), it's a matter of going through the images on Google, or preferably African Bird Club until you get a match. That's how I'd approach it anyway.....
Looking at the fact that the location is Addis Ababa, and that the bird has a clear, strong supercilium, then immature Marico Sunbird is the only possiblity, I think. All the other possibilities that Andy mentions are ruled out by one or more strong features. Malachite, Scarlet-chested, Beautiful and Copper (which isn't in Addis according to Redman) don't have a supercilium to talk about. Shining and Tacazze are the wrong colour (and Tacazze is long-tailed which might still show to some extent in the immature).
We had a discussion on a similar bird last year around this time.
We had a discussion on a similar bird last year around this time.
Thanks for the helpful discussion. I will check on that thread from last year as well. I myself have never seen a Bronze sunbird here in Addis, only much further west. On the other hand, I have also never seen a Marico in Addis, while I have seen one Malachite. However, I have noticed in the 4+ years I have lived here that birds that are not normally found in Addis sometimes can be found at this park I was at.
Thank you for the help so far. I am leaning toward Marico/Mariqua as well. I will take Andy's advice and scroll through some of those images. My Princeton guide does not indicate that most male immature sunbirds have a black throat, so I guess it's just a case of inexperience on my part.
Thank you for the help so far. I am leaning toward Marico/Mariqua as well. I will take Andy's advice and scroll through some of those images. My Princeton guide does not indicate that most male immature sunbirds have a black throat, so I guess it's just a case of inexperience on my part.
Here is an image of Marico: http://www.planetstillalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Marico-Sunbird-female-3AB-1024x669.jpg
compare with this image of a Tacazze? http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/1905/22677
Also for comparison, I will attach a shot I took a week earlier (same location) of a bird I presume to be a Variable (as always, I could be wrong!)
compare with this image of a Tacazze? http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/1905/22677
Also for comparison, I will attach a shot I took a week earlier (same location) of a bird I presume to be a Variable (as always, I could be wrong!)
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