Hi Johan, Dieter et al.,

Glad to be of help.

As you say, the fourth bird on the right in Image 13 is a puzzling one
as it clearly shows warm rufous greater coverts, suggesting Fan-tailed
Widow (which is out of range, as Joseph pointed out) so, hopefully,
the fundis will be able to assist in the ID of this particular
individual.

Very best wishes,

Adam
Naibor Camp, Masai Mara




On 29/08/2010, Johannes Buckens <johannes.buckens@telenet.be> wrote:
> Dear Joseph and Adam,
>
> Thanks a lot for helping us out on the ID of these birds.
>
> We saw them on our first day in Kenya (and my first day in Africa) so you
> can imagine we had a hard time with these groups of birds in non-breeding
> plumage. It's hard to find some good information or pictures of this
> plumages, for some reason people like breeding males more :)
>
> About the pictures:
>
> 4.5. I agree this is a male Parasitic Weaver. It's a crap picture indeed but
> the short, stubby, black bill is just visible. Unfortunately we hadn't
> noticed this male in the field (the picture is a large crop from a picture
> of a group of birds), it would have made things easier!
>
> 3. Bird on the left is obviously a Red-billed Quelea, the bird on the right
> seems to be a White-winged Widowbird and I can agree that the two birds in
> the middle are female/imm. Parasitic Weaver, like the birds on picture 2 and
> 6.
> Red-billed Quelea have longer bills, females have red bills and from many
> pictures I found on the internet immatures seem to have an orange or pinkish
> bill.
> The only species that compare in size to Parasitic Weaver and also have such
> a short, stubby bill are Red Bishops (but these species have an extremely
> short primary projection, unlike the birds on my picture) and Cardinal
> Quelea (which have the same size as Parasitic W).
> However female type Quelea's don't show a pale crown stripe, while the bird
> on the picture attached (picture 11) clearly has a pale crown stripe (the
> right bird in this picture is the same bird as in picture 2). On the
> internet I found a picture of female Parasitic Weavers (picture 12), they
> clearly show a pale crown stripe.
> I think the left bird in picture 11 is also Parasitic Weaver, it seems like
> a worn adult female. The other Parasitics on the pictures could be
> immatures.
> There seems to be quite some variation in the coloration of this female-type
> Parasitic Weavers?
>
> 7.8. I agree
>
> 9.10. These were small Weavers (of course you can't see that on the
> pictures), so I knew it were Vitelline or Lesser Masked Weavers. Thanks Adam
> for pointing out the difference in leg color between the two species, I
> didn't know that. The bird on the right with grey legs and white eye should
> indeed be a Lesser Masked. The bird on the left (indeed the same as in the
> other picture) is probably an immature because of the dark eye, leg color
> indicates Vitelline unless maybe imm Lesser Masked can also show pinkish
> legs.
>
> 1. The Widowbirds. Luckily a friend of us has a picture of two birds from
> this group flying off, clearly showing white patches in the wings. So there
> must be White-winged Widowbirds in this group (we also saw some White-winged
> Widowbirds flying around in the same area that day). Apparently the birds
> (the males) on my pictures did a good job hiding the white primary coverts
> and the white on the greater coverts. Picture 1 is a crop and is a part of a
> larger group of birds.
> I included another picture in higher resolution (picture 13) of the same
> group, but with one bird that had newly arrived. It's the fourth bird from
> the right, and it seems to show orange greater coverts. This is not right
> for White-winged Widowbird, maybe this is a Fan-tailed Widowbird?
> (the male Widowbird on the left in picture 1 shows brown-red lesser/median
> coverts, and also another male on another picture does, I think that's OK
> for White-winged)
>
> We had a great time in this lovely country, and managed to safely identify
> around 500 species in only 16 days.
> There are a few other birds we couldn't identify safely, I hope you don't
> mind us sending this pictures too.
>
> Best regards and thanks again,
> Johan
>
>
>
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: Adam Kennedy [mailto:adamscottkennedy@googlemail.com]
> Verzonden: zondag 29 augustus 2010 16:15
> Aan: AYUB KARIUKI
> CC: dietervandenheuvel@yahoo.com; kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com;
> johannes.buckens@telenet.be
> Onderwerp: Re: [KENYABIRDSNET] help with ID
>
> Dear Joseph,
>
> You are quite right that White-winged Widow is far more likely a
> candidate based on locality.
>
> Where do you stand on the other identifications?
>
> Regards,
>
> Adam
> Naibor Camp, Masai Mara
>
>
>
>
>
> On 29/08/2010, AYUB KARIUKI <ayubkariuki@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Adam, Dear Dieter,
>> Thanks you for your kind photos of Parasitic weavers. Coming back to your
>> comments, I would 100% denounce your Fan tailed widow???
>> Kindly see Dieter emials once again, his says all images taken in 21st
> July
>> 2010 Nairobi National Park. Have you ever seen a fan tailed in Nairobi
> ref;
>> your distribution of birds ?? this is a western Kenya species you are
>> talking off. Kindly allow me not to comment further as I had given my
> opnion
>> and will be happen to be corrected in a better way than this.
>>
>> To Adam, give me a call when you are in Nairobi and I can join you at the
>> park you challenge me there live as I believe, I was sure on myself.
>>
>> Good luck to all of us,as we try to sort out the images.
>>
>> Regards
>> Joseph
>>
>>
>>
>> To: ayubkariuki@hotmail.com
>> CC: dietervandenheuvel@yahoo.com; kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com;
>> johannes.buckens@telenet.be
>> From: adamscottkennedy@googlemail.com
>> Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:15:17 +0300
>> Subject: Re: [KENYABIRDSNET] help with ID
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Dieter, Joseph et al.,
>>
>> There are some interesting images here and I think that Joseph
>> certainly has some of the IDs correct. However, for my money, I'd
>> suggest the following;
>>
>> 1. Fan-tailed Widow rather than White-winged, based on the lack of any
>> white on the greater coverts. The bird on the far left looks
>> especially good for this species.
>> 2. Parasitic Weaver (aka. Cuckoo Finch) - general jizz plus the head
>> shape and bill with flat-to-slightly concave culmen are indicative
>> 3. Red-billed Quelea on the left but others are different, and
>> probably Parasitic Weaver
>> 4.5. - Difficult to see but I'd put money on Parasitic Weaver and not
>> Holub's which is a brighter and often bulkier bird.
>> 6. Again, looks like a worn Parasitic Weaver to me. Red-billed Quelea
>> would show a brighter red bill in most plumages, except immature when
>> it can be quite dull.
>> 7.8. - Red-collared Widow - moulting male
>> 9. I'm not convinced these are Village Weavers. The bird on the right
>> shows a pale eye and blue legs, suggesting female Lesser Masked
>> Weaver. I would expect bill and body to look more robust if they were
>> Village Weavers.
>> 10. The same bird as the one on left in image 9 I guess? Dark eye
>> suggests an immature but this bird shows pinkish legs rather than
>> blue. The trickiest one for me!
>>
>> I have attached two images of Parasitic Weaver taken in the Mara in
>> June for you to compare with the birds in images 2,4,5,6. I hope this
>> helps.
>>
>> More feedback from the fundis required I think!
>>
>> Cheers and best,
>>
>> Adam
>> Naibor Camp, Masai Mara
>>
>> On 24/08/2010, AYUB KARIUKI <ayubkariuki@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dieter,
>>> I had a quick look at your photos and sorry that you had this difficult
>>> times in 16days safari Below are my opnion on the images.
>>> 1) Spec -1 is female White Winged Widowbird
>>> 2) Spec 2 is female Red Collared Widowbird
>>> 3) Spec 3 is Red Billed Quelea good one to iD on the left top.
>>> 4) Spec 4 & 5 is Not clear Images but looks like Holub's Golden Weaver
>>> female.
>>> 5) Spec 6 is FemaleRed billed Quelea
>>> 6) Spec 7 &8 are Non breeding Red Collared Widowbird
>>> 7) Spec 9 &10 Juv. Black headed (village) Weaver.
>>>
>>> see what others may think about them.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Joseph
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> To: kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com
>>> CC: johannes.buckens@telenet.be
>>> From: dietervandenheuvel@yahoo.com
>>> Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:27:58 -0700
>>> Subject: [KENYABIRDSNET] help with ID
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I'm Dieter Van den Heuvel from Belgium. I am a birdwatcher that visited
>>> Kenya for 16 days last month. We visited Kenya with a group of 6 birders
>>> that had absolutely no experience with the Kenian birdlife, so I guess
> you
>>> can imagine it was very difficult for us to identify some of the birds
>>> that
>>> were in winter plumage. We took pictures of most of the birds we saw, but
>>> for some we don't succeed in pointing out the species. That's why we are
>>> looking for some ID-help. I hope I'm not "abusing" this e-mail list and
> if
>>> so please please let me know and ignore my e-mail. I was just hoping that
>>> someone could help us with identifying the birds that are in the attached
>>> images. All pictures were taken on July 21st in Nairobi NP.
>>>
>>> thanks in advance
>>> Dieter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> 
>>
>