The Mundri road

The Mundri road heads west from Juba. I've only birded along it once before: the bush is extremely degraded due to wood extraction for charcoal.  Nevertheless, last year it turned up the only Emin's Shrike and almost the only Green-backed Eremomelas I've seen around Juba.  Yesterday I found three Fox Kestrels near a rocky outcrop about 15 kms out of town.  This may well be a 'stake-out' for this species as the habitat seems suitable for breeding.  About 35 kms out I worked over the area where I'd found the first two species mentioned above.  I was unable to track down either, but did find White-winged Black Tits, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver and Black-bellied Firefinch, none of which are particularly easy to locate in the Juba area. 

Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver

Despite the poor habitat, I also saw a Yellow-billed Shrike as well as another Lesser Grey Shrike (after the good showing last weekend).  Starlings have started to reappear. I thought at the time that they were Lesser Blue-eared, but the photo below appears to show the distinctive large yellow eye/ eyering of Purple Starling, Lamprotornis purpureus.  I was also able to photograph a confiding immature Bateleur.

Purple Starling

Immature Bateleur

Lastly, I noticed last year that Black Scimitarbills have broad whitish tips to about five outer primaries, a feature not shown in Stevenson and Fanshawe's 'Birds of East Africa', though clearly visible on at least one photo, from The Gambia, that I found on the internet. I noticed the same feature on this bird I photographed yesterday.

Black Scimitarbill