Rupell's Long-tailed Starling - Lamprotornis purpuroptera
There are quite a few beautiful glossy starlings like this in Africa - and I am only beginning to sort out the shots that I brought back with me from Safari. I left quite a few small difficult birds until last ! We tend to look through starlings at home but if you take a much closer look they have a lot to recomend them. Click to enlarge and admire the absolute sheen on this bird. All of the starlings would scavenge around the camps that we went to and truck stops and so on. As much at home on the edge of a town or village as in the savanah. They are basically omniverous as a family and will take any scraps as well as grains and insects and so on.
Well its the third of January 2013 and I am short a bird already so I must try and get a few more done this evening and get ahead. I am sure this photo was taken right in the camp a few yards from my tent door. It is the season to plan travel and if I had my way I would go and spend another week just sat in a tent flap somewhere with a beer watching the African world go by. I am sat in my office and I cannot see a single bird from the window. Not even a Myna or a Pigeon. Glass, concrete, cars, dust, noise. I am not complaining as a few months of this pays for a good trip - somebody posted on Facebook a whimsy today imagining that you were asked to be the Cameraman for Attenborough - I'd carry the bags - I'd even wash the dishes.
Mara River, Olakira Camp, Serengetti
July 2012
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