Bustards and Barbets

Today Lesley and I went down the old Nimule road, just across the bridge over the White Nile in Juba.  It was overcast, which enabled us to stay out for several hours without getting too hot, though the conditions were not so good for photographing birds.

There were two "big bird" highlights - a pair of Black-bellied Bustards flew right over our heads and a pair of gorgeous Black-breasted Barbets perched conveniently in a bare tree. We later saw a bustard in a field only 200m from a village, suggesting that the species is not hunted.

Black-bellied Bustard

Black-breasted Barbet

So distracting were the barbets that we spotted too late that there were also two woodpeckers in the same tree. These flew off before we could look at them closely.  They were most likely Grey or Nubian Woodpeckers.  I did take several photos of some remarkably non-descript LBJ's (little brown jobs in birders' parlance) and close examination of the pictures plus scouring the internet confirmed that they were Siffling Cisticolas, my second record for Juba.

Siffling Cisticola, is this the ultimate 'LBJ'?

In fact, we encountered almost every cisticola species that occurs here, seeing Siffling, Red-faced, Red-pate, Rattling, Croaking, Winding and Singing Cisticolas.  That leaves only Foxy and Zitting. I photographed a Croaking Cisticola.  This species is similar to Rattling but has a chunkier bill as well as a completely different song (actually two songs are far as I can tell, including one given in a display flight).

Croaking Cisticola

We 'unmasked' another weaver today.  Some birds that were practically identical to male Northern Masked Weavers in breeding plumage had red eyes, so were Vitelline Masked Weavers, the first I have seen around Juba.  Below I include photos of both species, showing the difference in eye colour - Northern Masked has a dark eye.

Vitelline Masked Weaver, male in breeding plumage

Northern Masked Weaver - spot the difference

I was surprised to see a juvenile Northern Masked Weaver begging for food from an adult female, since I've not yet seen any nests of this species this rainy season.  Perhaps they are birds from Sudan that have moved south. 

Juvenile (left) and adult female Northern Masked Weaver

Note how worn the adult's wing feathers are compared to the juvenile.

Other interesting sightings today included Grey-capped Social-Weavers nest-building and some attractive Chestnut Sparrows (no photos though).

Lastly, another photo of that great character, the Long-crested Eagle.

Long-crested Eagle