Here’s another shy little bird I found in the trees and bushes growing along the stream, and it is a southern yellow white-eye (Zosterops anderssoni).
Near the white-eye, I got as close to a sunbird, a female double-collared sunbird this time, as I believe I ever managed.
Atop the small bluff above the stream, I thought I had finally found a woodpecker, but this dashing figure turns out to be a green wood hoopoe, formerly known as a red-billed wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus). I read that “they climb tree trunks in the manner of a woodpecker,” so I don’t feel so bad about mistaking it for one, “and when feeding on the ground they hop rather than walking like the true hoopoe,” such as the Eurasian hoopoes we saw in Lilongwe.
One afternoon, Anne and I hiked to a highpoint, from which we could see Lilongwe in the distance to the northeast and Mozambique only a few kilometers away to the west. While there, a small flock of these hungry little birds, bronze mannikins or bronze munias (Spermestes cucullata), flew into the swaying treetops above us and really made me work for these pictures.
In this image you can better see the bicolored beak that helps distinguish it from the black-and-white mannikin.
After struggling with the mannikins, it was a joy to work with this darling Souza’s shrike (Lanius souzae), who was willing to sit for this portrait.
Okay, I’ve gotta stop here because the conference is finally over, and so Anne and I are going to visit Gouda for the day before we start our journey home tomorrow. Yes, I will be sure to sample the cheese.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 