Kenya is one of the best birding destinations in the world - with over 1100 bird species found! Back in 1994 teams from world birdwatch recorded 797 species in one day with one team seeing 342 species! Isn't that amazing? Essentially if you are interested in bird life Kenya would be a fantastic destination. During my recent trip I did my best to record most of the lovey birds we saw and I have ended up with quite a collection. Today I will show you some of the starlings we saw. I belive we counted at least 5 species but I only managed to get decent pictures of three of them.
This is the famous Superb starling and it is widespread throughout East Africa, a classic savannah bird that is very distinctive with it's metallic greens and blues. I have shared many breakfasts with these beautiful birds, we saw them everywhere we went.
These amazing birds are new for me, or at least one I do not recall seeing in my youth - the Wattled starling. The breeding males develope these long black wattles which combined with their sulphur yellow skin give a dramatic and unusual appearance. Like many birds in this family these guys are highly communal often associating with other species of starlings and nesting in colonies with Cape Weaver birds.
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I also had the great pleasure to see again my favourite bird in this family - the Golden Brested starling. They live in small family groups and all individuals assist in nest building and feeding the young. I think these birds look exquisite, like they are crying out to be photographed! We spotted these guys on 3 occasions in Tsavo and each time they moved on swiftly being not very keen on having much of a photo session. Maybe next time! :)