As the professional body – WSA, finding the need to map birds within Upper Kabete UoN Campus earlier on, we finally had our first intense bird walk/ nature walk guided by an experienced field guider from Nature Kenya, Peter Muriethi on 5th July 2014. Six WSA members turned up for the walk.
List of Birds spotted from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm
1. Common fiscal
2. Hadada ibis
3. Amethyst sunbird
4. Streaky seedeater
5. Speckled mousebird
6. Red-cheecked cordon bleu
7. Common bulbul
8. Olive thrush
9. Bronze manikin
10. Pied crow
11. African pied wagtail
12. Plain martin
13. Variable sunbird
14. Bronze sunbird
15. Black kite
16. African paradise flycatcher
17. Collared sunbird
18. Red eyed dove
19. Scarlet chested sunbird
20. Cape robin chat
21. White browed sparrow weaver
22. Cinnamon chested bee-eater
23. Northern-double collored sunbird
24. Eastern honeybird
25. Red-billed firefinch
26. Speke’s weaver
27. Violet backed starling
28. Yellow rumped tinkerbird
29. African citril
30. Chin spot batis
31. Purple grenadier
32. Black cuckoo shrike
33. White eyed slaty flycatcher
34. Baglafecht weaver
35. Kenya rufous sparrow
36. Augur buzzard
37. Holub’s golden weaver
38. Black saw-wing
39. Lanner falcon
40. Grey backed camaroptera
41. White headed barbet
42. Ruppell’s robin chat
43. Red faced cisticola
44. Lesser striped swallow
45. Northern pied babbler
46. Black backed puff back
47. Spectacled weaver
48. Common waxbill
49. Hamerkop
50. Long tailed cormorant/reed cormorant
51. African black dark
52. African darter
53. Long crested eagle
54. Little grebe
55. Black crake
56. Egyptian goose
57. Yellow whiskered greenbul
58. Red throated wrayneck
59. House sparrow
60. African harrier hawk/gymnogene
61. Singing cisticola
Useful facts we learnt from the nature walk
i. There are two types of black kites (Milvus migrans); one being a migrant (M. m. migrans) and the other a local bird (M.m.parasitus). The migrant black kite, recently known as the yellow billed kite is a Palearctic migrant mainly found in central Kenya between October and March. M. m. parasitus is widespread all over the country, present at all months and breeds between September and March.
ii. Some sunbirds feed on both nectar and insects such as the collared sunbird (Anthreptes collaris) with short straight bills compared to the long curved bills of the nectarinia species which mostly dwell on nectar.
iii. Holub’s golden weaver (Ploceus xanthops) is the largest weaver.
iv. Speke’s weaver (Ploceus spekei) is among the few weavers’ that nest in colonies.
v. The black cuckoo shrike (Campephaga flava) is an afrotropical migrant i.e. migrates within Africa.