Hi Brian,

Thanks for the interesting info on the montane white-eyes.  Yes, one would certainly believe the ol donyo white eyes and most of the other montane spp for that matter, to be isolated and probably for some time. It was actually something I was thinking about when I was up there.

That was the only photo that I managed to get.  Though given my proximity, I will probably be up there again in the near future and will endeavor to get some more photos.  It would certainly make for an interesting comparison with the kikuyu white eyes and more broadly on the speciation of island populations. 

Let's chat after you get back.

Cheers, Darcy

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 10:15 PM, Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Darcy,
I am in Madagascar at present and for the next three weeks. I was
fascinated by your Ol Donyio Sabuk report. and intrigued by your
white-eye. Birds in the Montane/Kikuyu groups when on mountain islands
seem to take on a racial identity or speciate. Britton gives no
mention of the species on such an isolated mountain, the range of our
more familiar kikuyuenis being a continuous distribution from Mt Kenya
to Nairobi highlands. No-where in this range is it isolated and I am
wondering if anyone has ever looked at the Ol Doniyo birds before
because there cannot be an interchange with the main distribution and
the birds should be isolated and evolving an identity. Do you have any
more images?
Very best
Brian







On 9/7/15, Darcy Ogada ogada.darcy@peregrinefund.org [kenyabirdsnet]

<kenyabirdsnet-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> Okay, I'm trying this again.  See below.
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Darcy Ogada <ogada.darcy@peregrinefund.org>
> Date: Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 11:11 AM
> Subject: Ol Donyo Sabuk 6 Sep 2015
> To: kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I was up Ol Donyo Sabuk yesterday.  Being hopelessly dry in Thika, I was
> hoping the mountain would produce more birds.
>
> It certainly wasn't my best day up there, but I managed some nice birds.  I
> finally managed to get some photographs of the brown-capped weavers, which
> I usually see, but always in terrible light and with a strained neck.
> Yesterday I was very lucky to photograph both the male and the female. They
> were both doing their nuthatch-like feeding style of probing under the
> lichens as they scooted up and around a tall tree.
> [image: Inline image 1][image: Inline image 2]
>
>
> I also managed this rather distant photo of a montane white-eye.  As
> further support that despite the top of this mountain being only c. 2100m
> the forests at the top support montane species.
> [image: Inline image 1]
>
> Other non-montane species were groups of cabinis's greenbul, and singles of
> augur buzzard, yellow-rumped tinkerbird, brown-crowned tchagra.
>
> On the mammal side of things, I did manage to see and photograph a troop of
> colobus monkeys.  While seeing them there wasn't surprising, I can't recall
> ever having run into them before on the mountain.
> Others were syke's monkeys and baboons heard from afar, and dwarf mongoose.
>
> While Ol Donyo is not the easiest park to see birds, it has a lovely bit of
> forest at the top and apart from some semi-drunk hikers I didn't encounter
> anyone else.  Karibu Thika!
>
> Cheers, Darcy
>

--

Darcy Ogada | Assistant Director of Africa Programs
The Peregrine Fund | www.peregrinefund.org 

P.O. Box 1629-00606, Nairobi, Kenya
+254-722-339366

Conserving birds of prey worldwide