Today's calendar says "Artist's Choice," meaning that I have to choose what bird to write about. There are so many I could have picked. I decided I wanted to write about one of the lifers (birds seen for the first time) I've had this month. We have a week off in October, and my husband and I went to Lake Mburo, in Western Uganda. There are many species in that part of the country that we don't have here, and during that trip I got fifteen lifers. They were all exciting, but I decided to write about the Striped Kingfisher. On the 4th I told you that I had seen nine different kingfisher species (in three countries). While at Lake Mburo I saw my tenth! It was the Striped Kingfisher.
Photo Source: eBird.com
Striped Kingfisher
Halcyon chelicuti
Halcyon bird
of blue and brown,
my Kingfisher species
number ten:
welcome to my list
of treasures.
Outsiders found you in 1814
in Chelicut, Ethiopia,
but you’d been around long before.
They added you to their list
of treasures.
I found you in 2024,
when the guide pointed up at you
where you watched, impassive,
from your tree.
I know you don’t care,
but I sure enjoyed
seeing and hearing you,
Striped Kingfisher.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Here are the ten kingfisher species on my life list:
Belted Kingfisher - US
Ringed Kingfisher - Paraguay
Amazon Kingfisher - Paraguay
Green Kingfisher - Paraguay
Pied Kingfisher - Uganda
Woodland Kingfisher - Uganda
Malachite Kingfisher - Uganda
African Pygmy Kingfisher - Uganda
Giant Kingfisher - Uganda
Striped Kingfisher - Uganda
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