Northern Masked Weaver

Description:

Medium sized weaver, some 12 to 13 cm in length. Breeding male bright yellow, with an olive green, but yellow and black striped coat . The main distinguished characteristics (to help ID the bird from other masked weavers) are dark eyes in combination with a black mask extending to the fore-crown and down to chest; edges of the mask dark-reddish. Female (photos 5 and 6) and juvenile more olive-green than other weavers; prominent yellow supercilium - still difficile to ID if the breeding male is not seen.

Habitat:

Here seen on Tuti island, an island in Khartoum which I considered as a birdwatcher paradise. Mainly agricultural fields. Seen in a smaller group of two males and four or five female birds, accompanied by one male Lesser masked weaver (not in pictures). NE Africa's endemic, mainly seen in Sudan (Nile basins) and Ethiopia, with occasional sightings reported in Kenya and Uganda (and some in DRC as well???).

Notes:

It seems like a first spotting of this bird on Project NOAH...??? It is not that often reported on some other sites either, like for example AFBID counts only three separate spottings: http://www.africanbirdclub.org/afbid/sea...