Olive-bellied Sunbird: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The Olive-bellied Sunbird did not do as well as some birds in the naming lottery 🙂 Olive-bellied is not the descriptor that springs to mind when looking at this bird! This is the 5th out of 6 different species of sunbirds we saw on the grounds of Chimpanzee Forest Lodge in a single afternoon. Sony Rx10iv at 567mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Marico (or Mariqua) Sunbird: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Another gorgeous sunbird from our stay at Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, just outside Kibale National Park. It is the Marico Sunbird in the Birds of East Africa, and that is how I leaned it when I first encountered it in South Africa, but it is Mariqua Sunbird in eBird and, apparently, on the IOC World Bird Name List. (I should point out that there is also a possibility that this the Purple-banded Sunbird…they are almost identical expect for overall size and the length of the bill…neither of which are easy to judge from this photograph. I am pretty sure we called it a Marico when we saw it. Again, anyone who knows better please correct me.) Sony Rx10iv at 554mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Tinkerbirds are small barbets, mostly black and white with some yellow somewhere. I don’t remember seeing (or at least noticing) any tinkerbirds on my 2019 trip to Uganda, but they were everywhere in 2022. They are, in fact, very common throughout East Africa. We saw at least 3 different species. This is the Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, which has more yellow than you can see in these photos. You can just see the yellow edging in the wings on the more profile view. There is, as you might suspect from the name, a bright yellow (varying in hue from lemon to gold, regionally) on the rump. Sony Rx10iv at 561mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Green-backed Camaroptera: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The Green-backed (or Grey-backed) Camaroptera is a wren-like warbler, common in much of Africa south of the Sahara…both west and east, and all the way down the east coast to far-South Africa. Some consider the Green-backed varieties (East Africa and south) and the Grey-backed (West Africa) to be separate species. To confuse matters, when it is considered a single species, some call it Green-backed and some call it Grey-backed (IOC has Green-backed)…and, to even further confuse, some call it Bleating Camaroptera. In the single species scheme there might be up to 8 subspecies. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 561mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Green-headed Sunbird, Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — What could be better than Sunbirds in late afternoon light in the flowers? This is the Green-headed Sunbird, one of many sunbird species we saw on the ground of Chimpanzee Forest Lodge near Kibale National Park in Uganda. The green coif on the male is actually the color of the cap on the female but it can look more blue as it does here in certain lights and from certain angles. It is a common bird of the higher elevations in every country in East Africa. There are separate populations in West Africa as well. Sony Rx10iv at about 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200 (female) and 160 (male) @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Great Blue Turaco: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — One of my goals for this trip to Uganda was to see more Turacos and see them better (by which I mean, get better photographs). Turacos are wonderful, uniquely African, birds…large, brightly colored, and (as eBird says), slightly clownish…and like nothing we have in the Americas. (Some once tried to link them to the Hoatzin of South America, but that is now disputed.) The Great Blue is the largest Turaco and perhaps the most common, with a range in both West and East Africa in the band of rainforest south of the Sahara. Certainly they have the largest range in Uganda. We saw them in Entebbe, Kibale, and Lake Mburo. This one was roosting on the grounds at Chimpanzee Forest Lodge the afternoon we birded the area. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Scarlet-chested Sunbird: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Sunbirds are among my favorite African birds…they have a hummingbird look about them, with their iridescent colors…and they fill pretty much the same niche as hummingbirds in the America, so it is a shock to the system, or at least my system, to hear them sing…and sing they do! There were half-a-dozen species of Sunbirds working the flowering shrubs on the grounds of Chimpanzee Forest Lodge and I was in photographer’s heaven 🙂 This is the Scarlet-chested Sunbird which has a range in West Africa south of the Sahara, then down on both sides of the rift valley, and on both coasts of South Africa above South African itself. It relatively large for a sunbird, and uniquely back and red, with that green/blue crown and throat, and that huge de-curved bill. Hard to miss. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Grey-capped Warbler: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Every resource where I found the Grey-capped Warbler began by calling it “chunky”…a “chunky warbler” and I guess that is fair. It is a loud bird, often heard before it is seen, along the margins of yards and landscaped grounds and along forest edges, all through East Africa. Uganda is pretty much the center of its range. In these three shots you only really see the chestnut throat in the partially obscured singing bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Singing: ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Branch: ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th.