Readers’ wildlife photos

Today we have a passel of bird photos from reader Ephraim Heller’s recent trip to Africa. His notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Brief introduction: Continuing with my virtual safari, these photos were taken in Tanzania in April 2025. Most are from the Serengeti National Park with a few from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Today’s photos focus on colorful birds I think are pretty as well as a few otherwise interesting birds.

Pin-tailed wydah (Vidua macroura) male in breeding plumage. Males have an elaborate courtship flight display, which includes hovering over females to display their tails.The males I saw were busy attracting females to their territories and aggressively defending their territories from other males:

Usambiro Barbet (Trachyphonus usambiro). I love photographing barbets because of their distinctive feathers. The barbets get their name from the bristle-like feathers which fringe their beaks:

Purple grenadier (Granatina ianthinogaster). I loved its gorgeous, saturated colors:

Nubian woodpecker (Campethera nubica):

A variable sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) kindly posing in a garden:

Yellow bishop (Euplectes capensis):

Grey-breasted spurfowl (Pternistis rufopictus) and chick. Endemic to Tanzania:

Lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor):

A black-headed heron (Ardea melanocephala) expresses his displeasure at a newcomer who had the temerity to land on his dead tree:

Southern ground hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri):

Common ostrich (Struthio camelus) male:

Kori bustard (Ardeotis kori) is the largest flying bird native to Africa:

African sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). According to Wikipedia:

“For many centuries, sacred ibis, along with two other species in lesser numbers, were commonly mummified by the Ancient Egyptians as a votive offering to the god Thoth. Thoth, whose head is that of an ibis, is the Ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and reason, and thus of truth, knowledge, learning and study, and writing and mathematics. The sacred ibis was considered the living incarnation of Thoth on earth. Pilgrims from all over Egypt brought thousands of ibis offerings to four or more main temples, which at their peak mummified and buried thousands of birds a year in gigantic and ancient catacombs (one complex was in operation for 700 years). Eventually, an estimated eight million birds were mummified and entombed by the Ancient Egyptians.”

“Pliny and Galen ascribe the invention of the clyster (enema) to the ibis, as according to them it gave such treatments to hippopotami. Plutarch assures us it uses only salt water for this purpose. 1600 years later this was still accepted science, as Claude Perrault, in his anatomical descriptions of the bird, claimed to have found a hole in the bill which the bird used for that purpose.”

I’m not saying this is true. I’m just asking questions.