Thursday, January 13, 2011

Oustalet's Sunbird in Sumbawanga

Photo: Silas Olofson silasolofson@gmail.com
Always awesome to bird in Tanzania. Yesterday I saw an adult martial eagle just outside Sumbawanga... Now I need to find the spotted creeper, cape wagtails and the locust finch!
 
Today I was a mountain outside Sumbawanga and came across a small sunbird with white belly. According to Stephenson and Fenshawe the white-bellied 'variable sunbird' only lives in Kenya. 'White-bellied sunbird' should not be this far north - I cant find any maps of this species on the atlas-homepage, but I might be blind.
 
That leaves us with oustalet's sunbird... but that cant be... or?
 
Cheers,
 Silas
 
Nice one Silas,
 
see Moyer, D.C. 1983. A record of the Angola White-bellied Sunbird Nectarinia oustaleti from Kasesya in southwestern Tanzania. Scopus 7: 52. for the 2nd record from Tanzania.
 
13 records in our database that will include these first two.
 
yep, Tanzania a magical place to bird, please stay a while longer !!
 
Neil
 
Neil and Liz Baker, Tanzania Bird Atlas, P.O. Box 1605, Iringa, Tanzania.
Mobiles: +255 776-360876 and +255 776-360864.
http://tanzaniabirdatlas.com