Birds became my main interest this season in Gambia.
Here are some nice shots:
First, the Green dove that is really amazing. We had a pair of them now and then in the big Parinari (wild plum) tree, eating fruit.
Here is a pair of them. Almost looks like one single bird with a head in both ends, haha....
Next comes two photos of the grey-billed hornbill. Frequent, almost abundant guest on the plot, always noisy. Our gardener/watcman Wie does not like them at all, they destroy a lot of his farm products in the rainy season; corn, ground nuts and millet.
It's not often we see raptors in our garden. This rare visitor is a Shikra. It stood at the bird pond one hot afternoon, I saw it through the kitchen window. It drank and then stood resting on one leg a long while. My Bird guide book says it favours garden pools. Good to know! Nice stripes on its belly!
The Yellow-billed shrike again. They are very common. Another photo of it in the previous blog post.
Now two pictures of the greater blue-eared glossy starling that is less common than the long tailed one which comes next. The first picture is one of my favourites from the whole season 2011-2012. The shiny back shows well in this position. The whole bird is metallic, shining in many ways in different angles of light.
And the other one of the same bird:
Then two photos of the long-tailed glossy starling, the favourite of both Börje and me. They are always many in the garden, and on the whole plot. Noisy chatting birds in large groups. Shining metallic blue and dark green all over.
More next time - probably photos from the beach. Cheers for BIRDS!
See also the previous post, there are some more birds.
