A few unknown birds from Gambia (1 Viewer)

[Liebzi]

Hi, a have for quite a while had problems with a few identifications from a trip in February 2019 to Gambia. Hope you can brighten some lights on some of them.

Photo 1: Assume this to be a Pink-backed Pelican.

Photo 2 and 3: I feel this has to be a Wahlberg's Eagle, but somehow the jizz gives me booted eagle vibes. Perched eagles are never easy!

Photo 4: Not the best photo, but is it possible to exclude desert cisticola. I guess it has to be Zitting, but seems a bit paleish.

Photo 5: Not the easiest angle or photo of a swallow. Because of the not pure whitish rump, I identified it back then as a Red-rumped Swallow with dropped outer tail feathers. Now bringing the photo into Lightroom, it doesn't seem to have reddish neck. Could this be a House Martin, with bad photo/light giving the rump a slight wrong colour?

Photo 6: A Black Winged vs Northern Red Bishop. I thought it was a Black-winged back then because of the primaries seemed to be blackish, but now looking at it the eyebrow and underpart color seems a bit off for Black-winged. I guess it is a Northern Red Bishop.

Photo 7: Another bishop. Because of lack of breast stripes, I guess this is another Northern Red Bishop.

Photo 8 to 10: Paradise Whydah. I can't really put a finger of these being Exclamatory or Sahel. I identified with my guide as them as Sahel back then because of neck colour and tail length. But I have just seen photos of Exclamatory with the same neck/breast colour. So I'm a bit lost.

Photo 11: An indigobird of a kind.

Looking forward to hearing from you

 

[THE_FERN]

1 agree
2,3 Wahlberg's. Gape/beak shape (bill is delicate)
4 likely to be zitting (not pale enough for non-breeding desert) but I don't think you can say with certainty
5 tail shape wrong for house Martin
...621 black-winged (black wings). Underparts are variable, can be streaky as here
...461 Northern red bishop (face pattern, lack of district cap)
...91 not safely identifiable afaik
...021 "short" tail says sahel
...81 long tail says exclamatory
...11 not identifiable I think

 

[RafaelMatias]

#5 is almost certainly Preuss's Swallow (aka Preuss's Cliff Swallow), which I wasn't aware had been recorded from The Gambia before. It nests on neighbouring Guinea-Bissau where I saw it in good numbers, though locally, more than 25 years ago. On e-bird there are no records from The Gambia, but there's a record from Abuko (19 Feb 1994) on obervation.org, though with no photo (Preuss's Cliff Swallow - Petrochelidon preussi). It's an excellent record for The Gambia and it may be worth reporting it to Clive Barlow.

 

[Liebzi]

1 agree
2,3 Wahlberg's. Gape/beak shape (bill is delicate)
4 likely to be zitting (not pale enough for non-breeding desert) but I don't think you can say with certainty
5 tail shape wrong for house Martin
...621 black-winged (black wings). Underparts are variable, can be streaky as here
...461 Northern red bishop (face pattern, lack of district cap)
...91 not safely identifiable afaik
...021 "short" tail says sahel
...81 long tail says exclamatory
...11 not identifiable I think

The 621 you call a black-winged. The photo is taken just before sunset, maybe that is giving it more darkish tones. I just find the eyebrow, bill size, breast pattern, underneath color odd for a such. See this photo for a black-winged: ML427709901 Black-winged Bishop Macaulay Library and compare it to this one: Northern Red Bishop - Euplectes franciscanus - Media Search - Macaulay Library and eBird . Try to take a look at this photo where they are sitting next to each other: ML419875331 Northern Red Bishop Macaulay Library , it seems Northern red can also appear pretty blackish on primaries, even though it isn't as black as Black-winged.

All the paradise whydah on the photos above was in same flock, is it common that they mix species flocks?

 

[Liebzi]

#5 is almost certainly Preuss's Swallow (aka Preuss's Cliff Swallow), which I wasn't aware had been recorded from The Gambia before. It nests on neighbouring Guinea-Bissau where I saw it in good numbers, though locally, more than 25 years ago. On e-bird there are no records from The Gambia, but there's a record from Abuko (19 Feb 1994) on obervation.org, though with no photo (Preuss's Cliff Swallow - Petrochelidon preussi). It's an excellent record for The Gambia and it may be worth reporting it to Clive Barlow.

Very interesting answer. I didn't come across this swallow at all, it isn't a part of the Gambia and Senegal bird guide book. I have tried brighting up the photo a lot. It shows whitish feathers on mantle, but red-rumped can also show that. Seems to have some reddish around the eye, but can't figure out if it's behind or in front of eye. Like this bird: ML383059021 Red-rumped Swallow (Red-rumped) Macaulay Library , red-rumps can also show short tail streamers.

 

[THE_FERN]

The 621 you call a black-winged. The photo is taken just before sunset, maybe that is giving it more darkish tones. I just find the eyebrow, bill size, breast pattern, underneath color odd for a such. See this photo for a black-winged: ML427709901 Black-winged Bishop Macaulay Library and compare it to this one: Northern Red Bishop - Euplectes franciscanus - Media Search - Macaulay Library and eBird . Try to take a look at this photo where they are sitting next to each other: ML419875331 Northern Red Bishop Macaulay Library , it seems Northern red can also appear pretty blackish on primaries, even though it isn't as black as Black-winged.

afaics, black winged bishop has the first few outer primaries entirely black, whereas northern red has buff fringes. I can just see those feathers on your image and they appear all-black to me.

All the paradise whydah on the photos above was in same flock, is it common that they mix species flocks?

probably...

 

[THE_FERN]

Very interesting answer. I didn't come across this swallow at all, it isn't a part of the Gambia and Senegal bird guide book. I have tried brighting up the photo a lot. It shows whitish feathers on mantle, but red-rumped can also show that. Seems to have some reddish around the eye, but can't figure out if it's behind or in front of eye. Like this bird: ML383059021 Red-rumped Swallow (Red-rumped) Macaulay Library , red-rumps can also show short tail streamers.

I don't think we can really judge any of the colours in your pic. For example, I've no idea what colour the rump actually is. However, the tail shape is weird for any swallow I'm familiar with (like you I didn't know about Preuss's): I've never knowingly seen a swallow with this tail shape.

 

[RafaelMatias]

I don't think we can really judge any of the colours in your pic. For example, I've no idea what colour the rump actually is. However, the tail shape is weird for any swallow I'm familiar with (like you I didn't know about Preuss's): I've never knowingly seen a swallow with this tail shape.

I wouldn't put too much weight on colours either. We can however acknowledge the rump is not white, though being contrastingly pale. Tail shape is likely to be affected by moult in this case, I'm afraid, although this unfortunately cannot be confirmed from the single pic (there seems to be moult going on on wings as well). The first impression Preuss's gives in the field (at least to me it did), especially if not too close, is that of a weird House Martin. The pale rump (of some shade of rufous), the pale dorsal lines, lack of pale collar on hind neck (which I believe would be visible if present) and tail shape all seem to point towards Preuss's imo.
EDIT: Sorry, I completely missed the linked photo of RRSwallow above, I don't know how. It's certainly similar to your bird, yes, and it may thus remain unidentifiable if this is the only photo you have of it.

 

[Liebzi]

afaics, black winged bishop has the first few outer primaries entirely black, whereas northern red has buff fringes. I can just see those feathers on your image and they appear all-black to me.

probably...

Regarding the bishop, I checked a lot of photos, and I can see what you mean with buffish fringes on the outer web of primaries. I lighted the photo up a lot, and it seems it's only the outer 1 maybe 2 feathers being all black. Comparing it to example this black-winged: ML313870731 Black-winged Bishop Macaulay Library and this one ML214118211 Black-winged Bishop Macaulay Library , it seems to be all primaries being entirely black. I found a few northern red showing blackish shaft on outermost primaries: ML204922021 Northern Red Bishop Macaulay Library and ML48569211 Northern Red Bishop Macaulay Library .

 

[Butty]

Photos are far from being perfect representations of reality, and I think you're both putting too much trust in what they appear to show.

 

[Liebzi]

Photos are far from being perfect representations of reality, and I think you're both putting too much trust in what they appear to show.

What is this suppose to mean? Often photos dosen't have to be perfect to be helpful for an identification.

If you have an opinion on the Swallow and Bishop -- bring it on.

 

[Butty]

What is this suppose to mean?

Primary-fringes and (not even visible in the linked photos) -'shafts'.

Often photos dosen't have to be perfect to be helpful for an identification.

Of course.

 

[Liebzi]

Photos are not great I know, and we can't see all feather details on these birds, but anyhow I really starts believing these to be Northern Red Bishops. I found a photo from the next day at the same exact location of some bishops in the background of a quela, I cropped the photo a lot but I still think it's giving a good feeling. The old photo went through photoshop, to remove it from being taken after sunset. Now it's giving a very different feeling.