Birding in Kenya: Nairobi National Park bird identification

I managed to leave my field guide at home when visiting Kenya last month (rookie error when traveling in a new country!) so I wasn’t able to pin down some of the IDs in the field. I took these photos in Nairobi National Park. Any thoughts on each bird’s identification would be much appreciated – feel free to add comments below.

Wheatear spp_b

Wheatear 1

My feeling is that this is an Isabelline Wheatear given the black alula and the extent of white in front of the eye, but I have no experience separating Isabelline from Northern Wheatear.

Pipit spp_c

Pipit 1

Pipit spp_a

Pipit 2

Pipit spp_b

Pipit 3

I saw a lot of pipits in Nairobi National Park and most resembled African Pipit, but I have seen literature mentioning “Nairobi Pipit” and the likes so I thought I’d seek opinion on these. Pipits 1 and 2 remind me of African / Grassveld and Pipit 3, given its longer-legged appearance and bulkier giss I’d lean towards Plain-backed. Any thoughts on these pipits?

Cisticola spp_g

Cisticola 1

Cisticola spp_e

Cisticola 2

Cisticola spp_c

Cisticola 3

Sorry, but I had to include some Cisticolas and some rather rubbish images to boot. I realise habitat and call provides a bit more context, but does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

David Winter

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>