New habitat, new bird

This is almost my last post as I leave Juba permanently on 1 September.  There are still a good number of species that should occur here but that I've not found.  One was Plain-backed Pipit, which  occurs in open shortish grassland.  So this morning I was back up the Terekeka road searching the only apparently suitable piece of habitat: a large area from which all the trees have been removed (probably with future construction in mind) and now covered mainly by grasses.  I not only found the pipit - a single bird - but also several Zitting Cisticolas, a species I'd previously seen just once, in January 2011.  Not having found the cisticola since, I was contemplating removing it from my list.  I was able to get a record shot of the cisticola, but not the pipit.

Zitting Cisticola

 

I tramped through a marsh hoping to flush a crake, but no luck.  I did find an odd-looking cisticola that turned out to be juvenile Winding.  Note how different it is from adult Winding photographed back in June.

Juvenile Winding Cisticola

 

Adult Winding Cisticola (June 2012)

 

There were flocks of Fan-tailed Widowbirds, with males not yet in breeding plumage; a beautiful Yellow-crowned Bishop; a Western Banded Snake-Eagle; two Black-bellied Bustards; and in a fig tree, two Eastern Grey Plaintain-eaters, attracting attention with their crazy laughter.

Scruffy-looking male Fan-tailed Widowbird

 

Male Yellow-crowned Bishop

 

Eastern Grey Plantain-eater

 

The main Terekeka road marsh just outside Juba still seems to have too much water to attract herons and waders, but when the water level falls the habitat should become superb (sadly, I'll not be here).

 

Terekeka road marshland