ID Please

[laurab]

Any ideas?

[dave85]

hi laura,

wheres that come from?

looks like a type of bishop but seems to have alot more dark markings compared to others.

Will look for summit similar.

Thanks
Dave

[cooltom28]

did it come from 3 oaks? the reason i ask is the customer i had here toniht for the whdahs said he bought one almost black from there to mye i could try and obtain it if your intersted?

[chris]

Hi Laura,

i think it might be a yellow bishop, any chances of some more photos, one frontal and one from the back would be useful if possible.

here's some photos of yellow bishops (note, not yellow crowened bishops)

http://www.birdforum.net/bird_view.php?bid=9625
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic192-104-1.html

Chris;-)

[laurab]

I will try an get a rear and front view, he is quite shy.

Paul gave me some weavers and I am cerrtain this one has come from him as the only other one I have bought is the Napoleon Weaver.

Chris, I am starting to have doubts as to the sex of the Napoleon. I took a cracking shot of it at the weekend but deleted it by mistake :x If it turns out to be a cock bird I don't mind keeping it. It is currently in an aviary with Hecks and some smaller birds and it's not causing any problems.

[chris]

Hi Laura,

no problem, my cock birds don't seem to be interested in breeding at all, still i think a 'rainy' season with the sprinkler might do the trick

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
well if you got the same storm as me last night your birds will be building nests this morning .i had to stay up till 5 am to calm the dogs down the fork lightning was lighting the whole back garden up.i went out at 7 am expecting to see afew night fright deaths but they were all ok :shock: at least i know my roof is water proof now it started at 2 am with masive fork lightning streaks filling up the sky.



ken8-)

[kenny]

hi chris
i know you like your weavers mate,you might like this link if you have not already got it......some nice clear pics on here




ken


http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=51059489&pageid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&query=weavers

[kenny]

hi chris/laura
is this the same bird!http://www.kenyabirds.org.uk/pics/v_weaver.jpg

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

your photo looks like a village weaver to me? thanks for the link but i already have it:D Laura's bird looks completely black in the photo apart from some yellow on the wing, either that or i'm colour blind, mind you my monitor isn't the brighest thing you can get

Chris;)

[chris]

hi laura,

this isn't the one is it?

http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic192-47-1.html

if it is your very very lucky! i know someone was asking me about them the other week but i can't think for the life of me who, apparently they're quite rare

Chris

(edit, just noticed the yellow eyes in the one in the link, and that yours has black eyes... ah well most likely a yellow bishop)

[laurab]

Hi Kenny, great site, well done for finding that one :razz:

Chris, mine also has a yellow band around it's throat.

[dave85]

hi chris,

i know Kevin Paul on ff3 has a Vieillots weaver cock,

i agree with chris that your bird could be a Yellow bishop as certainly looks very similar.

If my plans of alteration go ahead weavers may be one of the things i add as a 18 long x 7ft wide planted flight should be big enough :D

Thanks
Dave

[kenny]

hi chris
it looks mostly black to me but you are right it does have some yellow on the wings,and a little yellow on the side of the neck


ken

[laurab]

Here are a couple more shots.

[chris]

the only black weavers and whydahs i know of are the following:

yellow bishop, vieillot's weaver, white billed and black billed buffalo weavers, white winged widow bird, red collared widow bird (whydah), yellow mantled whydah, long tailed widow bird (whydah), fan tailed widow bird, and the gross beak weaver.

given that the yellow bishop has yellow covering the back, we can rule this out. vieillot's weaver has yellow eyes, again ruled out, red billed and white billed buffalo weavers have red/white bills, ruled out, white winged whydah is a possibility however the beak is lighter so unlikely and there isn't any obvious white in laura's photo. red collared whydah can also be ruled off as there is no red on the weaver, same for yellow mantled whydah, fan tailed whydah and the long tailed whydah/widow bird as both have other colours on the back and wings. this leaves us with the gross beak weaver which is brown in most photos i've seen, apart from this one:

http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/Sampler7aWeaverbirds.htm

(last photo on list)

still there are these photos which say otherwise:

http://www.mangoverde.com/wbg/spec/spec192-114.html

so that leaves us with very little.......

a possible hybrid? maybe it isn't quite in full colour assuming it has an eclipse plumage, maybe it isn't a weaver at all but possibly some sort of combassous?

i'm stumped, who'd keep weavers eh?:shock:

Chris:|

[chris]

back just to throw a few more spanners in the works:lol:

not only do we have misslabelled species on the net and contadictory photos, but i will point out that my cock vitelline weaver's eyes were both very much black for the first year or so i had him, it's only been recently that his eyes have turned their true colour (red). so maybe it's a young vieillot's weaver after all.

i've had a quick look through the combassous and other true whydahs (as opposed to the euplectes widow birds) and all the black species don't have the jet black bill that laura's seems to have.

now i've thouroughly confused myself, and probably everyone else so i'm off to rest my head:lol:

Chris:wink:

[laurab]

.....He's looking more and more like a yellow bishop with each passing day.....and I have now removed him from the aviary along with a cock Orange Bishop.

The 'Yellow' one was causing a problem to other birds, even my Bourkes! The poor chap did nothing wrong except sit on the wrong perches.....actually I think his colour was the problem as he is predominately black, but how do you teach birds about 'ethnic' correctness????