Re: [KENYABIRDSNET] Re: Dakatcha Starlings

Dear Fleur, Don and All,

Certainly these birds sound like the southern form of Lesser Blue-eared Starling and this is an excellent record. It looks like Birdlife have got this correct in mapping it north to the Malindi area, which must be based on a specimen as noted by Don. They are considered specifically by Gill and Donsker as Miombo Blue-eared Starling and this may also be correct in view of the juvenile plumage, different habitats, allopatric ranges and different voice contra the Dowsett's assertion. I was able to get a good recording of Lesser Blue-eared near Suam last Nov (https://www.xeno-canto.org/396017), which sounds the same as other examples from Ethiopia, but is subtly different to the analogous vocalization of Miombo Blue-eared from south of Kenya (e.g. here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/104753), It's also quite different to several other vocalizations of the Miombo form (e.g. here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/398082 or https://www.xeno-canto.org/398081) which are not represented in audio collections of Lesser Blue-eared. Concerning habitat preferences of Lesser Blue-eared on the north slopes of Mt Elgon/Kongelai, from our observations they appeared to be closely tied to and were unquestionably most numerous in areas where Euphorbia candellabra grew most densely, and several birds were seen entering presumed nest holes in these. The general habitat was quite arid and scrubby, less semi-humid woodlands as one finds on the Kenya coast at Dakatcha.

Also interesting with regards Fleur's record are the old accounts of "Lesser Blue-eared Starling" at Ol Doinyo Sabuk, which would certainly have been this same Miombo bird, and which appears to have been correctly picked up on the maps used by Birdlife International again. Given Miombo Blue-eared Starling is almost certainly seasonal in southern Kenya and perhaps only a sporadic and irruptive visitor anyway, these old accounts from OD Sabuk should be correctly recognized as such now. This also fits very well with the occurrence of other southern woodland birds in the OD Sabuk area (Retz's Shrike, Bearded Scrub-Robin, Peter's Twinspot, Ashy and Lead-coloured Flycatchers etc.) which clearly point to a small pocket of the southern woodlands realm just outside Nairobi. So.... keep an eye out for Miombo Blue-eared Starlings along the coast and around Ol Doinyo Sabuk, with possible occurrence in the Mar-Sep period!

Unfortunately eBird doesn't add anything to the picture at this point with no reports of Lesser Blue-eared Starlings along the coast. There's also no good photos of Greater Blue-eared to scrutinize more closely although reports of these from the north coast are nearly all Oct-Feb. I think it quite possible, however, that Miombo Blue-eared Starlings could have been overlooked at the coast (and elsewhere?) given how similar the adults appear and the distributional omissions of Miombo Blue-eared in most texts.

Good birding all,

James

On 17 April 2018 at 07:56, Don Turner don@originsafaris.info [kenyabirdsnet] <kenyabirdsnet-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Dear Fleur and all others. This is certainly a most interesting observation by Fleur and others with her at the time.

The Lesser Blue-eared Starling has two very distinct populations: a northern one in northwest Kenya, often occurring in flocks around the Kongelai Escarpment, and a southern one in the miombo woodlands of Tanzania which comes north to the Pangani - Tanga area, and Van Someren’s collectors did collect a couple of specimens back in the 1920’s from the Vanga / Mombasa area.

The southern bird has been considered a separate species (Miombo Blue-eared Starling) by some authors, despite comments by the Dowsett’s that calls of the northern and southern birds are identical.

Morphologically there is one major difference between northern and southern birds, and it occurs in the juveniles, with juvenile northern birds being buffy-brown below, while those of the southern population are distinctly all tawny-brown on the underparts.

In Birds of Africa Volume 6 there is a mention of southern birds being recorded in coastal lowlands north to Vanga, Mombasa and near Malindi. Now Vanga and Mombasa refer to the Van Someone days, but the “near Malindi” reference appears to refer to the map in Hall & Moreau (1970) Atlas of African Passerine birds where both Lesser and Greater are shown for what appears to be the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, and which must be linked to a specimen in Tring (though I was not aware of it).

There seems no doubt as to what Fleur and her colleagues were seeing at Dakatcha, and this is surely worth following up.
It maybe that some years these birds have been overlooked among the southern Greater Blue-eared (sycobius) that do occur annually in the coastal lowlands north to Kilifi and Malindi. Certainly worth checking out all flocks of Greater Blue-eared at the coast in the future.

Wonder if there are any e-bird records from the coast worth following up ??

Don Turner

James Bradley
Sidney, BC