A new bird for the Nairobi list?

Nature Kenya's Wednesday Morning Birdwalk 31/07/02, some 40-50 
people, spilled out of more than a dozen cars in a quiet garden on 
Mbagathi Ridge, behind the Karen Blixen Museum in Karen, Nairobi.  
About mid-morning, my group was walking through the car park area 
under a spreading fig tree when someone called out"woodpecker!"

The woodpecker, climbing a Jacaranda branch, seemed larger than nearby
bulbuls, with a green back.  As we were next to Oloolua Forest, I 
guessed it would be Fine-banded.  However, it was not barred below, 
but heavily streaked, and the green back was covered with yellowish 
spots.  Someone said "it looks like a Golden-tailed Woodpecker', but 
I dismissed that as out of range. After looking through the bird 
books, Cardinal was suggested, but although it had the same general 
pattern this bird was much larger ­almostthe size of the Olive Thrush 
that landed above it.  The next most likely woodpecker was Nubian ­ 
but this bird was heavily streaked below, not spotted.

Time to take down notes.  Larger than Common Bulbul.  Whole top of 
head bright red.  Long, strong beak.  Back, olive green with yellow 
spots.
Below, whitish with very heavy streaking.  Tail from above, rather 
dark with prominent yellow shafts.  We were looking up at the bird 
against a bright white sky and could see nothing more.

A few minutes later, looking back at the big fig tree from the 
driveway, we saw the woodpecker again, pecking repeatedly at a small 
dry branch, in much better light.  Or rather, this was its mate, 
because only the back half of the crown was red.  The front part was 
black with white spots. The face looked greyish, and as it twisted 
round the branch for a better pecking angle, I noted a small white 
crescent immediately above the eye, like a white eyelid.  Legs and 
feet grey.  Seen from below, the tail feathers were tipped with 
yellow.

Could it, after all, be a Golden-tailed Woodpecker?

Back at the Museum, Mercy Njeri and I looked at the skins.  The
Golden-tailed Woodpeckers, collected in Tanzania, were a good match 
for my notes.

Although the tentative Golden-tailed Woodpecker was the most exciting 
bird of the day, the one that really took our breath away was the 
Hartlaub's Turaco drying off on a low branch after a bath, its red 
primaries fanned out.

Fleur Ng'weno