Red-Chested Sunbird

I saw one red-chested sunbird on the hill below Nkimo Forest Lodge and above the Mabamba Swamp, near Entebbe and above Lake Victoria, in Uganda. I was with a guide, Johnson, who was very good (both my birding guides in Uganda were tremendous).

The female is much less colorful than the male, and I only saw a male, so I'll focus on its identification. The male has upperparts, including the head, that are metallic green. It is blue-green from the nape to the rump and on the scapulars. It has a dark brown tail tinged with glossy blue and edged blue-green. It has a thin violet-blue band on the upper breast above a broader red band, and is otherwise black below. 

I am intrigued by the yellow box on the breast shown in this photo. I don't see any mention of it, or see it in any of the photos. There is mention of a beautiful sunbird that has yellow on both sides of a red belly, but it otherwise looks much different.

Illustration of the red-chested sunbird from Birds of the World.

It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Range map from Birds of the World.

Scarlet-Chested Sunbird

We saw the scarlet-chested sunbird at Savannah Lodge near Kidepo Valley NP. We saw two right outside our cottage (a male and female) and one (a male) at the lodge where we ate dinner. The male possibly could have been the same bird. 

There are five subspecies Chalcomitra senegalensis acik is the subspecies we saw. It is found in northern Cameroon, southern Chad, north central Central African Republic, southwestern Sudan, west and central South Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and northern Uganda (where we saw it). 

The nominate subspecies, senegalensis, is found in West Africa, from southern Mauritania and Senegal east to Nigeria. It has a metallic emerald crown with a golden sheen and is otherwise very dark brown.

Sunbird outside our cottage.

The chin, upper throat and malar stripe (the stripe from the beak down across the jaw) are metallic green, the lower throat and breast are bright vermilion with narrow metallic purplish-blue or bluish-green subterminal bars on each feather. 

Male near the lodge where we ate. 

Scarlet chested sunbird male, subspecies acik, illustration from Birds of the World. 

The female is brown above, with white edges on the primary coverts and inner lesser coverts, has a narrowly edged white chin, and a throat narrowly barred light brown on dark brown (looking mottled). The underparts are pale yellow, marked with dark brown, particularly on the belly. 

A female also found outside our cottage.

Illustration of the scarlet-chested sunbird female from Birds of the World.

Acik, the subspecies we saw, has red on the chest that is lacking the gloss and is lighter, has less metallic blue barring, and the green malar stripe is smaller than in the nominate subspecies. 

Sunbirds are small and gorgeous and it is fun to see new ones. I've only seen them in the last few years. 

African Gray Hornbill

We encountered an African gray hornbill in Etosha NP in Namibia which I blogged about on July 2, 2018. 

There are two subspecies. The southern subspecies we saw in Namibia is Lophoceros nasutus epirhinus. It is found in southern Angola, central Namibia, northern South Africa, southern Uganda and southern Kenya to southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

This range map is from Wikipedia. The subspecies epirhinus distribution is in green and the other subspecies, L. n. nasutus range is in blue. 

An illustration of epirhinus from Birds of the World is above. 

We recently saw a number of the northern subspecies, nasutus, in northeastern Uganda in Kidepo Valley NP. Nasutus is found across central Africa, from west to east, and into the Middle East, including southwestern Saudi Arabia and western Yemen. Photos of nasutus from our recent trip to Uganda follow:

I believe this may be a juvenile from the bill shape, lack of color and lack of casque. 

Male and female.

This is an illustration of the female nasutus from Birds of the World and the male illustration is below. 

It has gray and brown plumage with the head, flight feathers and long tail a darker shade. It has a white line down each side of the crown and another down the back that is only visible in flight. The long curved bill has a small casque along the base of the upper mandible which is more prominent in males than females. Males have a dark upper mandible with a yellow mark or horizontal stripe. Females have tri-colord red-tipped mandibles. The bills of juveniles are blackish without the color and have no casque. 

While we were at the Savannah Lodge in Kidepo Valley NP there were several of them flying around. Their sound and flight is very distinctive. Birds of the World and Wikipedia varied on the color of the horizontal strip on the nasutus male. Birds of the World says it white and Wikipedia says it is yellow. The males we saw had yellow and they were clearly nasutus from the range map. 

Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill

In June 2018 we were driving into Hwange NP in Zimbabwe, Africa and Judy spotted a large black bird with red on its neck and head moving along the ground some distance from the dirt road we were on. It was a southern ground-hornbill. We got a poor, out-of-focus, photo. Our driver told us it was very uncommon to see one. On the way back out of Hwange we saw another southern ground-hornbill off the side of the road that went into the bushes. I have wished for a better photo of it all these years. 

When I learned that Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda had Abyssinian ground-hornbills that instantly became a bird I wanted to see. 

We were in Murchison Falls NP eating breakfast at the Pakuba Lodge and I heard a visitor say that there was an Abyssinian ground-hornbill just off the grounds outside. I grabbed my camera which was with me and got a poor long-range photo. After breakfast, as we left the lodge, I got a little closer and a little better photo. 

Male Abyssinian ground-hornbill in Murchison Falls NP near Pakuba Lodge.

We started out from Pakuba on our first game drive and had been going awhile when William, our guide, got word that a lion had been spotted. I don't remember the word which was said, apparently it was the sector where the lion was spotted, but I knew instantly what it was and our driver was rushing forward to get us into that fray. However, as we were rushing along a large male and female Abyssinian ground-hornbill were on the road. I insisted we stop so that I could get photos - the lion could wait a minute. We did get to the lion, and got a view and some photos, but I told William, our driver, that the ground-bill sighting was the A+, not the lion. 

A male.

A female.

An adolescent.

An Abyssinian ground-hornbill male illustration from Birds of the World.

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World.

It is black with white primary feathers that are visible in flight. The adult male has a patch of bare blue skin around the eye and an inflatable patch of bare skin on the neck and throat which is red,  except for the upper throat that is blue. The bill is black except for a red patch at the base of the upper mandible. On top of the bill is a short, open-ended casque that is also black. It also has long feathers that look like eyelashes that surround the eyes. They protect it from injury from dust, etc. The female is similar, but smaller, and any bare skin is dark blue. Juveniles are dark brown with a smaller bill and a casque just beginning to develop. It takes about three years for a juvenile to mature and it takes awhile to develop the casque, the bare skin color and the plumage. 

The patch of skin on the neck and throat is inflated and the blue immediately under the bill is evident. The casque looks like a nose on a skeleton and the eyes, casque and bill look like they are strapped on the a head with the back of the head and hair showing. 

This view looks like a plague doctor costume from the Middle Ages, or an alien. It is seriously a scary face. 

The female has the puffed out head and neck, it is just not as colorful (or as large). 

A close-up of this juvenile is scary. 

A range map from Birds of the World. It is found across a broad band of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and Mauritania  east to Ethiopia, Somalia and northern Kenya.  

It is a ground feeder and can walk large distances to feed. It will eat snakes, including the poisonous puff adder, lizards, tortoises and other amphibians. It has also been documented feeding on small birds, such as francolins, and small mammals such as hares and squirrels. Also lots of spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, fruits, seeds and ground nuts.  

Abyssinian ground-hornbills seen in Kidepo Valley NP. We saw enough of them that we no longer stopped to photograph them. 

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

We stayed two nights at the Nkima Forest Lodge on a wooded hill above the Mabamba Swamp on Lake Victoria southwest of Entebbe, Uganda. One of the most fun parts of the stay were a male and female black and white casqued hornbill that were in the trees around the lodge. Unlike most other hornbills I've seen, which were fleeting glimpses at some distance, these hornbills were close, unafraid, huge, loud and I saw them on multiple occasions in different trees and flying. 

A female and male. This photo, and the next one, were taken by my granddaughter, and better than the ones I took. 

It has quite a range. This range map is from Birds of the World. 

Birds of the World opines that it is best treated as a monotype, but states that there are tentatively two subspecies, Bycanistes subcylindricus subcylindricus and B. s. subquadratus. Subcylindricus is a West African bird, found in Sierra Leone, northeast Liberia and Ivory Coast to western Nigeria to the delta of the Niger River. Subquadratus is found to the east, from Nigeria, east of the Niger River, Cameroon, Central African Republic, east to South Sudan and south to north and east Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, southwestern Kenya, northwestern Tanzania and northeastern Angola. 

Male subcylindricus from Birds of the World.

Female subcylindricus.

Male subquadratus.

It is a black hornbill with a white rump, tail-coverts and belly, broad white trailing edges to wings, white-tipped outer tail feathers and gray-tipped feathers on the face.  The female's casque is much smaller than the male's. The male's casque is dark brown, broad at the base, then narrower and flattened as it rises, and projects forward. The illustrations show that the sides are wrinkled, which is harder to see in the photos. I spent time looking at the male's casque and trying to figure it out. In the early morning the sun would reflect through the lighter part of the casque which touches upon the forehead and it glowed. Some of my photos reflect that. I was very intrigued by it. A San Diego Zoo article on hornbills indicates that the casque is made out of keratin and is hollow or spongy. My guess is that the back portion of the male's casque is hollow. It may act as a sounding board to make the hornbill's calls louder. Males also use the casque to attract mates and project their strength and health to other males. 

Note in this photo, and the photo below, that the upper back part of the male's casque is glowing. It was very striking. 

The female's top of the head feathers were very odd, almost like horns or pigtails sticking straight up. I must not have kept the photos that showed it better, but the one below gives an idea. Also note that the birds are in the same tree as the photos above and the casque is not glowing. The sun had to hit it just right. 

The next photos show better lower body shots from the back and love-bird poses. 

The visit to the Nkimo Forest Lodge was worth it just for the hornbills. Such fascinating and interesting creatures and so fun to be able to observe them close-up.