I have to admit, this one had me stumped. Kurt and I were going through photos of our first trips to Kruger, in late winter/early Spring of 2013, and came across this photo I took of a pretty yellow-and-white bird in a bush.
Having spent the last two years cramming birds of Southern Africa into my brain from a few identification books, I was sad to realize how little I still knew of the variety of birds here.
In the end, I had to send the photo to a bird guy (not to be confused with my snake guy, or my chicken guy) because I just wasn’t sure.
Before I give the answer, who wants to guess? Your clues are (other than the colors and that beak): Kruger Park, woodland setting, early springtime.
And “little yellow job” doesn’t count. 😉
Love, MarLa
Okay, so you’re all quite a bit better than I am at this identification thing!
Bird guy says “juvenile lesser masked weaver in transition plumage.”
Next time I think I’ll start by running my unidentifieds through you ladies!
I thought the same as the first two commenters
You’re all smarter than I.
Well done!
One of the Weavers coming into breeding plumage?? Or maybe a Canary of sorts … mmm?!
Oy. You are definitely a bird, madam. Lesser masked to be exact, in transition plumage per the bird guy.
juvenile southern masked weaver ?
Wow. Really close. Juvenile lesser masked weaver according to the bird guy. I’m impressed!
Cool, I wasn’t sure as we had a juvenile southern masked weaver in our garden but his head was darker, i thought maybe this one was a female.