Look a little closer!

I have just been looking at the latest issue of the African Birds and Birding magazine and there is a photo of a tern trailing a blue-bottle jellyfish like a tail on a child's kite. The bird must have picked it up as it tried to catch a fish and now can't shake it lose.

That image reminds us to keep an eye open for the unexpected, the unusual, the impossible!

Yesterday i was testing out my new camera and this very obliging crimson-breasted shrike Laniarius atrococcineus landed near my feet. I concentrated on the birds eye, trying to get that sharp and almost missed the large tick that it was carrying behind its ear!!

Keep your eyes pealed and you would be amazed what unexpected things you see.

The Hwange Birder

New images of the Yellow Crimson-breasted Shrike

Still in Main Camp!!

After a week or so without any further sightings we saw the two yellow Crimson-breasted shrikes again and i managed a slightly better shot.

Enjoy!

The Hwange Birder

Yellow form of the Crimson-Breasted Shrike!!!

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!!!!!

Yesterday i heard a rumour that the very rare (like hen's teeth) yellow form of the Crimson-breasted Shrike was seen at Hwange Main camp. Now this is a bird we have all seen illustrated in the field guides but about the same number of people have seen it as saw the "third gunman on the grassy knoll!"

What makes it so special is it is a bright yellow version of a bright red bird!!
As a safari guide in Hwange years ago i imagined one day seeing one with clients and being asked "what bird is that?"...the clients would have thought i was colour blind when i would have said "why that is a Crimson-breasted shrike".

Well today my dream came true....i was sitting here in the office when my phone rang and a fellow birder, Jean Blake, said ...Brent! guess what i have here.......

They call it twitching because of the uncontrollable shakes one gets when he sees a bird of this calibre......

Interestingly there are actually two yellow individuals, one an adult and one a juvenile being fed by parents of two different colours!

Get yourselves to Hwange and see them for yourself

The Hwange Birder