We had a brief encounter with this bird in Botswana very early one morning. Light was gloriously golden. Small little bird... Cropped quite a bit....should have had the 1.4 tele on but the light wasn't very strong yet....

I think it is a dark-capped bul-bul or maybe a common bul-bul? @Steve - what do you think? If I'm wrong, I'll change the thread title! We saw him as we were shooting all the little bee eaters that were huddled together keeping warm. He was in the trees to the left of the bee eaters.

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Can't help much with the ID'ing Karen, but I can say nice shots.

Hi Karen, Maybe a Black Phoebe, I'm not sure because of the yellow rump.

Louis champan said:

Can't help much with the ID'ing Karen, but I can say nice shots.

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Thanks, Louie. I hadn't even processed these......didn't think they were worth it. Just found them today when I was doing final keywording before importing all my Botswana images into LR.

Irap said:

Hi Karen, Maybe a Black Phoebe, I'm not sure because of the yellow rump.

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Sorry. I left out that this was in Botswana! I corrected Post #1!

Hi Karen, I downloaded the Botswana on Merlin and used one of your photos in order to get an ID. It says it’s a Common, however, there are several kinds of “Common”. I think yours is either a Dark-capped or Dodson’s. Here is a link to eBird for the Common Bulbul in case you haven’t checked - https://ebird.org/species/combul2

Great shots BTW!

Great shots!

SonoranDesert said:

Hi Karen, I downloaded the Botswana on Merlin and used one of your photos in order to get an ID. It says it’s a Common, however, there are several kinds of “Common”. I think yours is either a Dark-capped or Dodson’s. Here is a link to eBird for the Common Bulbul in case you haven’t checked - https://ebird.org/species/combul2

Great shots BTW!View attachment 47447View attachment 47448View attachment 47447View attachment 47447

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Thanks so much for doing this! I'm thinking common bul-bul at this point..... This was just a quick sighting, and when processing my images, I ignored these images. Today, I was happily surprised at their sharpness. At least good enough for hopefully and ID. A 1.4 tele on the 600MM would have been so nice...but then I would have had less light at daybreak....

Butlerkid said:

Thanks so much for doing this! I'm thinking common bul-bul at this point..... This was just a quick sighting, and when processing my images, I ignored these images. Today, I was happily surprised at their sharpness. At least good enough for hopefully and ID. A 1.4 tele on the 600MM would have been so nice...but then I would have had less light at daybreak....

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It’s def a Common. We just don’t know for sure which subspecies. And def sharp. congrats!

SonoranDesert said:

It’s def a Common. We just don’t know for sure which subspecies. And def sharp. congrats!

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Thank you, Lisa. Much appreciated!

Butlerkid said:

Thank you, Lisa. Much appreciated!

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Happy to help…just like you!

Beautiful. One I would never see otherwise. Thanks.

Great bird image with its environment. I always like that. To my taste, much preferred over a bird in the sky.

Dark capped bulbul per my Southern Africa guides. This is from Sasol e-bird guide. Only other bul bul is red eyed bul bul, that has distinct red circle around eye, which this one definately does not have.