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White Helmetshrike

Posted on January 14th, 2009 in Africa, Bird Photography Weekly, Gambia

Arthur just posted about where we were two years ago today on our personal blog: Abuko Nature Reserve in the Gambia. He ended the post with a photo of one of the strangest birds I’ve ever seen, the White Helmetshrike.

White Helmetshrike

White Helmetshrikes, also called White-crested Helmet-shrikes, are between 7.4 and 9.8 inches long. Males and females are similar. They are common in parts of sub-Saharan Africa although I think this was the only one we spotted during our time in the Gambia. I couldn’t find too much information about these guys on the web besides here; unfortunately our Gambia bird guide is still in storage.

For more great bird photos, check out Bird Photography Weekly.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm CST and is filed under Africa, Bird Photography Weekly, Gambia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 
2 comments
Jan 15, 2009
8:24 pm
#1 Red wrote:

Wonderful image of a fascinating bird! It looks like it has a flower for an eye. :)

Jan 16, 2009
11:34 pm
#2 Larry Jordan wrote:

Hi Amy, what an incredible looking bird. I’ve never seen anything like it. The most interesting feature to me is the eye waddle. I wonder how that developed and why? Excellent capture by the way!

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