...in a different location, and also different birds.
This male Starling doesn't believe in the ladies first rule:)
We sat for some coffee at an open-air coffee house, and suddenly a pair of Red-winged Starlings (Onychognathus morio) appeared. By now I am sure that they were used to us, due to our frequent visits at the coffee house on weekends. I even did a post about my wife hand feeding them with cheese some time ago. This time around, she had no cheese in her pocket as she gave it away to some other birds.
A bit more about this Starling species from Wikipedia.
The red-winged starling (Onychognathus morio) is a bird of the starling family Sturnidae native to eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. An omnivorous, generalist species, it prefers cliffs and mountainous areas for nesting, and has moved into cities and towns due to similarity to its original habitat.
The red-winged starling will obviously only perch on plant structures that will be able to support its weight; therefore when taking nectar it will choose certain species with strong, robust racemes with easily accessible flowers, such as that of Aloe ferox and Aloe marlothii, and not Aloe arborescens. Large flowers that can support the bird's weight, such as that of Strelitzia nicolai and certain Protea species, are also chosen.
After the male had a drink, the female followed suit.
Yep! She is a real beauty with her grey head.
The male started scrounging for nesting material.
And the female kept a watchful eye on him.
It is almost as if the female was telling the male about what to collect.
And finally, when the male had gathered enough, they both departed at haste.
From sipping nectar, to sitting on cattle in order to take ticks off, the starlings have many sources of food. They are very cheeky birds, and one dares not to go near them when they have their babies around. Eventually when these two breed, then the patrons that sit at the tables will have to watch out, as a starling will dive down from one of the trees to snatch the food out of their plates, or even from their loaded forks. Pandemonium is the result :)
Such is life.
I hope that you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Thank you kindly for supporting this post.
