Dear All,
Just as a PS, I have also seen it on the descent road down to Mtu
Wambu, and in Manyara itself near the new lodge in the SW corner.
Best
Brian

On 3/12/13, Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
> This is a great find and a major extension in known range. Only the
> Black Bishops share the combination of black throat and forehead. The
> bird is the friederichseni “form” of Black Bishop. I did not know it
> extended to the Lake. I have seen it Seronera, Ndutu to Olduvai. What
> happens north of there I have no idea, but it sneaks into Kenya in
> north Natron and at the now defunct Shompole Lodge, the birds used to
> come and drink from the swimming pool which was quite a sight. They
> were seasonally common there. I have taken much video, which enables
> me to send grabs of the bird in flight. In Kenya from the Lake
> Victoria basin westwards we have ansorgei. This extends south to
> Rusinga Island, but doesn’t appear to get further south and although
> there is habitat it just seems to drop out.
> For me the important thing is that I do not believe these two birds
> are the same species, or even that closely related. A situation
> similar to Usambara Drongo, where things just do not make sense
> visually, for birds to be under the same specific umbrella.
> Friederichseni whilst it has to feed in grasses like the entire genus,
> displays from the tops of acacias and crotons etc. and is a bird of
> scrubland. Gierowi only ever exists in some form of grass, be it
> native or in gardens of Maize, Sorghum, Sugar Cane etc… but always in
> a grass even though it may use adjacent bushes for perching and
> singing.
> In Stevenson and Fanshawe the illustrations make the two look very
> similar, with friederichseni having the red extending a little further
> down the back, and gierowi with a tinge of yellow gradation from the
> red of the nape. This is not accurate as the attached images will
> show. The red continues in friederichseni to the rump, gierowi only
> has colour to the extreme of the upper back but the hind collar is
> bright yellow.
> Best to all
> Brian
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>