Collared Sunbird - Hedydipna collaris
The fifth sunbird in my small jewel collection. This taken towards the end of holiday in July when I was starting to worry about not having picked up enough material for the site to keep me going.
This isn't a particularly good shot and it was taken at some range (both shots having been taken at range and hand held with a 400 mm lens up into a bush. We caught up with this small sunbird as part of a lovely game drive in which we took in the river.
Not the sort of place you can take an amble along - but certainly a good place to park up for half and hour. African rivers that concentrate the game and the birds. Along them usually figs (ficus) and palms and other trees - Its hard to go 20 yards without bumping into something. A monitor, a nest, an eagle or a flock of small birds - then a woodpecker, a clearing loaded with impala - a world away from everyday life. This site started next to a river in Sri Lanka - the same feeling of bounty - but strangeness - not somewhere you can walk with crocodiles and leopards. We live in concrete boxes in Dubai, air conditioned out of the natural world. Just stepping down out of a safari truck for 30 seconds in Africa and turning the engine off - as the world gets faster we need to try harder to slow down.
Collared Sunbird, Hydydipna collaris
Great Ruaha River, Tanzania
July 2013
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