----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
To: Itai Shanni <itaisha1@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, 6 August 2011, 20:06
Subject: ORANGE-TUFTED SUNBIRD FROM NAMBALE

Dear All,
It’s really nice to relive birding experiences with photographs. Today
Nigel came around to show me the images that he had received from Pete
Steward, including some really superb female Red-shouldered
Cuckoo-shrike in case there is any doubt that the species can be
readily separated in the field from female Black Cuckoo-shrike.
We were going through the images on my computer, just to appreciate
them and a beautiful image of a Marico Sunbird came up on the screen.
I remember how hyperactive they were in the flowering tree, and how I
called them as Marico and moved on to more interesting western birds.
Pete had secured this very nice image, and staring back at me was not
a Marico, but the tell-tale violet forehead (and narrow reddish breast
band) which were not seen in the field, made it instantly recognisable
as a male Orange-tufted Sunbird! There has probably not been a
substantiated record in Kenya for over twenty years, and even many
past records are viewed with some doubt.
With Peters permission, I have attached it to this email alongside a
Marico from Laikipia.

So the Western trip report should be amended as

Orange-tufted Sunbird        Cinnyris bouvieri
A couple seen near Nambale were a very exciting discovery, not
realized at the time. They were taken as Marico Sunbirds whilst there,
and it is only going through Pete Stewards excellent photographs, that
our oversight was brought home with a thud. A stunning adult male
Orange-tufted with it’s violet forecrown, and distinctly different
underparts was staring back off the screen. In defence it is difficult
to see subtleties in iridescence on these very active birds, but I
have been recording Marico Sunbirds there for years (far from more
than 25% of visits though), and have called them Marico. Perhaps
Marico has never occurred there!


Best  all
Brian