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Difficult at times, unless of course you are seeing them regularly.

Most of them are relatively easy but two are slightly more difficult.

The problems are with the iridescent nature of their plumage. Light plays a strange game with the identification of these birds sometimes.

Straightforward is the Long-tailed Glossy Starling - it has an obvious long tail and a conspicuous white eye.



Purple Glossy Starling again is quite easy, it’s the biggest of the bunch and is overall a very glossy purple even around the head.



Bronze-tailed Glossy Starling has a very conspicuous red eye.



The two problematic birds are Greater-Blue eared Starling and Lesser-Blue eared Starling. The greater is the bigger bird but if you don’t have a comparison then it’s more awkward.
A main identification tool according to field guides is their voices, but if you don’t hear these nasal calls, you obviously can’t apply this method, and if the birds are in a flock, you don’t know what bird is making a particular call.

However, there are other differences, the Greater Blue-eared is listed as bigger, but only by about two centimetres and it also has a bigger beak.

Diagnostic differences plumage-wise are the head patterns, notably the ear coverts;
The Greater Blue-eared pictured below has quite poorly defined ear coverts which tend to blend in with its mask.

Beak does look quite large.



The Lesser Blue-eared pictured below has much more sharply defined ear coverts forming a much narrower and more contrasting mask.

Much smaller beak.



There is also Splendid Glossy Starling which I didn't see but has a conspicuous creamy white eye with a normal length tail so not confusable with the Long-tailed Glossy starling.

Also a Chestnut bellied Starling which is really obvious to identify.

Here is a group bathing.


Below is a comparison with what I see from left to right Lesser Blue-eared / Bronze Tailed / Purple Glossy.



However, it isn’t always so straightforward and my analyses of these birds identification shown here may well be incorrect.

You will have to go some to find shrikes in this country as obliging as these birds. In the U.K Great Grey Shrikes e.g. don't tolerate people very well, if at all, and you nave to work really hard or be extremely lucky to get close to them. This shrike, however, seemed to be inquisitive towards me, although in order to get this close I was being very quiet and also moving extremely slowly towards it one tentative step at a time, then taking a shot and repeating the process.

This is the result.

Huge birds with a massive bill and appetite to match. They are widespread in the region but are still quite a spectacle when they appear in the sky, seemingly out of nowhere as they come in to land like a squadron of large planes.

A large quite conspicuous barbet with a bright red breast and belly, which sticks out like a sore thumb when perched typically in a fruit tree.



These birds are around ten inches high, they also sport a massive yellow bill with a thick cluster of whiskers beneath. They have a particular liking for figs, however, the young birds are usually fed on insects. They are a resident breeder across tropical West Africa and will even enter gardens looking for their favourite fig trees.

Probably seen as not as attractive as the Eurasian Spoonbill, which has a conspicuous crest and some yellow on the breast and bill. However, when captured in flight in a half decent light they can look quite fetching. They normally don't fly too close but when they do you have to take advantage.

The weather forecast was not promising for today, fine early on but yet again more rain coming in later. I needed a break from some computer work I was doing so I left home at 08.00 and walked up onto a local hill named Allt yr Esgair which is not far from my house. It was a bit of a slog because the track leading up was very soft and muddy but at last I was up on the open hill. Although winds were very light lower down, by the time I reached the top there was a full-blown gale and I had a job to stand up. I took my baseball cap off otherwise it would have been lost, but I had a hood on my jacket so that was OK.
I was carrying a Canon R5 Mk2 and a Canon Rf 100-500 lens – a light and very portable combo. There was no point lugging anything heavier up there, it’s too awkward and the risk of damage by the wind is very likely. There were a few spots of rain in the air but nothing too problematic.
In order to get out of the really fierce and nagging wind I sat down between a large rocky outcrop and a few well positioned gorse bushes. At least this provided some respite from the elements.
I was just looking out across the Usk valley towards the village of Talybont on Usk when a bird suddenly appeared from beneath the rocky outcrop, hovering on the wind. I could see it was a Kestrel – the consummate hoverer. Kestrels have become an uncommon bird here in the Brecon Beacons, where once, in the not too distant past they were quite an easy bird to see - It's a great shame because they are such an attractive little raptor.
It didn't see me because it was facing into the wind, as they do when hovering. It was only there for about thirty seconds, but this little photographic combination I was carrying is perfectly suited for these impromptu situations. The in-body image stabilization in the Canon R5 Mk2 coupled with the image stabilization in the Canon 100-500 lens keeps the image very still. If I had more time I could even have shot hand-held video in that wind - remarkable technology!
On closer inspection I could now see it was a female and I watched her, marvelling at the way she was handling the wind, although being buffered by really strong gusts she remained perfectly still.



Her body was motionless but here head was moving looking for prey some fifty feet below in the rough grass.

Suddenly she obviously saw something.



I could tell by her reaction, remarkable eyesight to spot prey from that distance in that wind.

She banked over, opened her wings and swooped down.



I don’t know if she was successful, I couldn’t see. I waited but she didn’t return, I hope she found some food;
What a bird!
The predicted rain looked more likely by the minute and the skies looked more and more threatening, so I left and dropped back down to the more sheltered tree-lined path, reaching home in about an hour just as the rain came in.

The Yellow Fronter Tinker Bird is a member of the barbet family. However, unlike most barbets which sing out in the open it sings from cover, and is therefore, more heard than seen.
These birds provide the backdrop sound of these woodlands, consisting of an onomatopoeic Tink Tink Tink which is repeated about once a second.
Resident breeders over much of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, they usually inhabit broad leafed riparian woodland where they nest in hollowed out dead tree branches and trunks.
They feed on insects, and also mistletoe fruit which they swallow whole, the swallowed mistletoe seeds are then regurgitated and the sticky regurgitations are wiped on tree branches and as a consequence tinkerbirds are probably the biggest disperser of mistletoe within their range.



Sometimes they appear out in the open.

The African Scops Owl is a widespread and strictly nocturnal bird of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is slightly smaller than its Eurasian cousin, but in almost all other aspects is very similar.
The main differences being a different call; the Eurasian Scops Owl has a repeated clear call resembling the five beeps preceding the old BBC speaking clock. The African species has a less clear Prrp Prrp call, much more difficult to locate.
Some of the African birds are also a slightly warmer brown, unlike the overall greyish appearance of most Scops Owls.



They roost like most Owls close to tree trunks, becoming active at night feeding on small prey like moths, beetles, spiders and grasshoppers etc. They swoop down to the ground on prey, but also hawk flying insects.

The Black Heron, is colloquially named the ‘Umbrella Bird’ because of its hunting style of using its wings to form a canopy which attracts fish to the subsequent shade provided.



This clever technique also helps the birds by making it easier for them to see down into the water. This method of hunting is therefore, unsurprisingly called ‘Canopy Feeding’
These birds inhabit shallow open waters around lakes and ponds; they sometimes fish in numbers, up to fifty birds have been recorded using this method.



They also roost communally like many other herons.

The diminutive Senegal Batis is a species of bird in the’ Wattle Eye’ family. These flycatcher - like birds are arboreal foragers, probing tree foliage for insects but also flying up into the air to catch some insects on the wing.
Their nest is built by both sexes and is a typical Batis nest, made of dried grass and strips of bark, decorated with leaves and lichen and bound together with spider webs. It is a small neat cup, attached to the fork or thick stem of a bush or tree also with spider webs. The nest is often in quite an exposed situation but the above-described decoration seems to act as effective camouflage.
They are very busy birds and this coupled with their very small size, about three inches, makes them a difficult subject to photograph. However, they are quite attractive and worth the effort.



The females below have a conspicuous rusty breast colouration

No, not my current account balance!

Overnight this website, with has ostensibly a narrow subject matter, (basically documenting my personal birding and photography efforts) received its 5000000th view. I never in my wildest expectations thought that a number of this magnitude would be achieved. I obviously must be doing something right LOL, and although, in all seriousness, it's far from easy maintaining people's interest in a website of this nature, excuse the pun.
It's far easier to post on a social media platform which covers the general area where you operate because your photographs are viewed almost by default when people are looking at the general area's wildlife posts. That's not detracting from the quality of peoples images, it's just pure logic.
This is not just a case of posting sightings from your local area, that's easy, even the mundane repetition is seen as acceptable! There are a few people 'I know locally' who think that way, and sniff at someone as just a photographer.

I'd like to invite some of them to have a try at something like this and see how far they get!

There are two main areas of difficulty;

One is getting the images to back your dialogue up. "A picture paints a thousand words!" as the saying goes. Of most relevancy is that you can't rely on other people's images to illustrate your writings!!

The second is attempting to write a blog post in an entertaining style that carries the reader along with you during your efforts to photograph these birds. It's no good just attaching a 'One Liner' to a photograph, that doesn't work. It appears that I have intermittent success in this area - based on viewers comments!

To finish, I'd like to thank the people who regularly look at this website and especially for the very kind comments I receive - it matters.

I intend to carry on for as long as I can hold a camera and lens, and look forward to spring arriving with plenty of nice birds.
Many thanks,
Steve

In contrast to the Rufous Crowned Roller, the Abyssinian Roller is a very conspicuous bird. It perches openly in various habitats and breeds across tropical Africa in a belt south of the Sahara known as the Sahel. This is another roller, like the Blue Bellied Roller, which is attracted to bush fires, dashing fearlessly into the blaze to predate displaced small animals.
These are elegant looking birds with their turquoise blue colouration and long tail streamers and are always nice to photograph.

The largest Roller found in The Gambia, growing up to sixteen inches. These birds are the least encountered roller for me personally and probably for anyone else. Unless observed out in the open on a a post or wire their colouration offers them, unlike other rollers, a degree of camouflage. However, on closer inspection they are a rather beautiful bird.
Their preferred habitat is dry open country where they spend long periods perched at the top of thorn trees watching for food items such as insects, spiders, scorpions and small lizards on the ground.



These bird are quite unobtrusive because of the above mentioned behaviour and plumage and it is always nice to come across one.

A widespread colourful Kingfisher, with a pale grey head, black mantle and back, bright blue rump, wings and tail, chestnut underparts and a large red beak. It grows to around eight inches.
These birds are found across large parts of Africa and southern Arabia.
Typically from Mauritania, through Senegal and The Gambia in the west, to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east, and south all the way to South Africa. It is also found off the African coast in the Cape Verde islands and Zanzibar.
Present in the Arabian Peninsula e.g. in Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
A dry-country kingfisher of scrub and woodland, often found near water, but is not aquatic. Perches on a branch, unmoving for long periods while watching the ground for signs of insects or small lizards.
Although widespread, it remains, personally an uncommonly found kingfisher. I just encounter the odd bird here and there.

A widespread and adaptable raptor found in tropical regions of West Africa becoming less common in the east of the country.
An unusual trait of this species is the double-jointed ankles it possesses, which enable it to reach into otherwise inaccessible holes and cracks for prey. It also has the ability to climb using its legs and feet as well as its wings.



The African Harrier Hawk is also uncommonly omnivorous, eating the fruit of the Oil Palm tree as well as hunting small vertebrates.

This is a common bird of warm open country with some trees. These rollers often perch prominently on trees, posts, or overhead wires, like giant shrikes, whilst watching for the grasshoppers and other large insects on which they feed.
These birds are also highly attracted to bush fires, waiting for the inevitable displacement of small animals and insects.
When they fly they exhibit a striking blue wing colouration.

All sunbirds are colourful, but some are both colourful and elegant and the Pygmy Sunbird certainly fits both those categories. This bird is pictured next to a brightly coloured Tulip Tree flower.

Dextrous and elegant in flight, White Throated Bee Eaters breed in semi- desert habitats on the Southern edge of the Sahara and migrate to Equatorial Africa in the winter. Their diet consists typically of bees, wasps and hornets, they nest communally with both parents feeding the young with help also provided by non-breeding adults.
They are the only Bee Eater with a black crown; they can often be located by their high pitched and far carrying rattle-like call.

These African Glossy Starlings are remarkable to see, and when you first do so you can hardly believe such birds exist. They look as if they’ve been beaten out of metal by some skilled craftsman.



They look even more spectacular in flight, so it’s well worth the effort to try and capture them then.





Purple Glossy Starlings.

There are numerous Sunbirds to see in The Gambia. However, I don’t actively seek any particular species out, I just stop to look when passing any suitable habitat – a bush or tree with any flowers, and just take a look. They are so small and active that they are difficult to pin down for a photo and you could be somewhere for an hour waiting for the right situation, so it’s just best to observe, take a few shots and move on.

They are definitely worth a few minutes’ effort though.


Variable Sunbird


Scarlet Chested Sunbird


Beautiful Sunbird


Pygmy Sunbird