Everyone knows that bird watchers get up before the crack of dawn. This morning yielded a lot of sightings of birds, even though we were not really in the Maasai Mara for its birds. I asked Stephen, our guide, to stop when I saw some motion in the grass next to the road. A long legged bird was hurrying away from us at a comically slow speed. The legs and the long neck reminded me of a bustard. There was only one African bustard whose name I could recall. But both the male and the female of the Kori bustard have a crest. This was very clearly without one.
When it judged that it was sufficiently far away, it stopped and examined us, giving me another opportunity to take photos. I could later use the photos to identify it as a female of the black-bellied bustard (Lissotis melanogaster). The family and I scanned the neighbourhood for another of these birds, but did not see one. We had come across this bird in the middle of its breeding season, so I guess this was a little unusual. I was seeing a lot of new birds, but they were all fairly common in Africa. This one is classed as being of least concern by IUCN, because it is widespread across sun-Saharan Africa and fairly far south down the east coast.
Apart from getting up early, bird watchers seem to have a keen eye for observation as you demonstrate. Great job on identifying this species.
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Thanks
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Wow. I’ve never been interested in going to Africa, but your photos have turned it into yet another place I would visit if I had the $$$.
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Thank you. I count that as blogworld success
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🙂 Definitely.
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I’ve never seen one before! Thank you for sharing the photo and the information. Very interesting! Thank you!
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You’re welcome
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😊
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Kudos to you for identifying so many of them 🙂
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It is a major pain when you are in a new continent and don’t have a friendly local expert with you. Each bird is a major effort.
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You do have the patience. I would have just been happy looking at them and enjoying the fact that I saw a “different bird” 😀
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🙂
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agreed that bird watchers wake up early.. nice picture and write up!
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Thank you
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