Martin Odino and I just returned from a 6-day trip spent mostly in Tsavo East, and more briefly in Tsavo West and Chuylus. It was to be a vulture-focused trip but due to the timing of being there during the rains, it turned into quite a breeding bird spectacle. In order not to get too carried away, I'll only touch on a few highlights.
One of the most stunningly visible birds were Golden Pipits, which prior to this trip I'd only see brief sightings of single males. We only saw them in Tsavo East, but we saw roughly 20-30 males. One of the most striking things about this bird is that it is more colourful under its wings, than it is above. Why?? Well this quickly became evident when I watched its display, which was a curious showy mix of all manner of seemingly narcissistic behaviour. It raised one wing and then the next (photo 1). Leading to it's parachuting descent to the ground with wings held high, which unfortunately I didn't get a photo of as it passed by in a blur of yellow. This combined with its mohawk 'hairdo' and fanned tail (photo 2) has to put the displays of this bird into the list of all-time great performances.
Paradise whydahs (photo) were everywhere, including outside the parks in the areas east of Kitui. They were often seen together with Straw-tailed whydahs, and at one point with a Steel blue whydah. Pin-tailed whydahs were also fairly common.
