Eagle, Pipit & Co from Savuti, Botswana (Feb 2019) (1 Viewer)

All photos taken in the Savuti Marsh area (Chobe NP), Feb 5th 2019.

1: I had this down as a Tawny Eagle (which was my general impression when taking the photo) but now I´m having second thoughts because of the brownish eyes and the hint of a crest. Possibly a Wahlberg´s? Bill size and grey colour would point to Tawny though.

2: Greater Blue-Eared Starling (my guess) or Cape Glossy Starling? (Miombo Blue-Eared Starling cannot be completely excluded but would be extremely unlikely.) Both species do not occur in numbers in the area, the default Starlings are Burchell´s and (to a lesser degree) Meve´s.

3: A heavy crop of a distant low-quality picture to begin with so apologies for the quality. Normally I would just delete it and be done with it but the bright yellow eyes are intriguing me. Not quite sure what to make of this one.

4: Always struggling with Pipits - Buffy?

Thanks in advance!

Tawny looks correct, I'd say Greater Blue-eared S., Lesser Kestrel, Buffy / Plain-backed, I'd say later for very strong eyebrow.

1.tawny eagle
2.greater blue eared starling
3.lesser kestrel
4.buffy pipit

Valéry and arcadillor, many thanks for helping me out with this. I take your point about Lesser Kestrel but what about the yellow eyes?

Valéry, I was leaning towards Buffy because of the pinkish (not yellow) lower mandible. Arcadillor, why do you think it´s a Buffy?

michael-ibk said:

Valéry and arcadillor, many thanks for helping me out with this. I take your point about Lesser Kestrel but what about the yellow eyes?

Valéry, I was leaning towards Buffy because of the pinkish (not yellow) lower mandible. Arcadillor, why do you think it´s a Buffy?

Click to expand...

We cannot see properly the eye with this photo, either the sun reflet in the eye or the yellow eye-ring appear very strong with the sun again... or both.

I'm not sure for the pipit, I didn't see Buffy since long, and some sub-species has been transfered from Buffy to Plain-backed or reverse, taxonomy of African pipits is not yet fully understood. I just see a strong eye-brow and Plain-backed is called leucophrys 8-P

Thanks again, Valéry, all good points.