Wednesday, June 27, 2018

African Red-Eyed Bulbul

In the camp at Okaukuejo in Etosha NP in Namibia, I was going in to the office to check out and noticed a beautiful bird hanging on a fixture from the ceiling. It had a distinctive yellow underside near the anal area, which caught my attention, a whitish lower breast, a blackish head with orangish-red and black eyes and a brown upper back.
This was the African red-eyed bulbul or black-fronted bulbul. 
There are two subspecies. I saw the north subspecies, Pycnonotus nigricans nigricans, found in southwestern Angola, Namibia, Botswana and western South Africa. The southern subspecies is found in central South Africa. 

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting eyes. Is there a biological reason they are that way? Does the red ring, for example, reflect light?

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