Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, Day 2

I can’t get the wifi here today, so I’m typing this on my phone, and all typographical errors are solely the fault of my thumbs.

Anyway, here are a few more birds that Anne and I saw when we ventured deeper into the forest.

This first amazing bird is an African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis), and I was only lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one just one time.

This Cabanis’s bunting (Emberiza cabanisi) might not be quite as flashy, but it was equally shy and elusive.

These violet-backed starlings aka plum-coloured starlings or amethyst starlings (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster), on the other hand, were plentiful along the stream, much bolder, and boardering on boisterous.

Here are a couple of close-ups of a male.

I think I have the energy to fight with wordpress and flickr on my phone for one more picture, so let’s wrap this post up with a southern double-collared sunbird or lesser double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) taking a pause between two blossom clumps of a lucky bean or flame tree (Erythrina abyssinica) from which it had just been feeding.

I read that “despite … similarities, sunbirds and hummingbirds are not very closely related. In fact, hummingbirds are more closely related to swifts and sunbirds are more closely related to crows — so the striking similarities between these two groups of tiny, colorful birds … evolved through convergent evolution. “

Okay, that’s all I can take for today. Let’s all hope I can find the wifi tomorrow and so use a real keyboard, mouse, and screen larger than an index card.