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A record of Rose-coloured Starling Sturnus roseus in southern Africa Jorgen Sagvik Un Etourneau roselin Sturnus roseusenAfrique australe. Un Etourneau roselin Sturnus roseusa ete observe etphotographic le 15 juillet 2005 dans le Parc National de Kgalagadi, au point d’eau Craig Lockhart, 18,8 km au sud du Mata Mata Rest Camp, Afrique du Sud. Ceci constitue la premiere donnee pour le pays et la deuxieme pour la region afro-tropicale. II est vraisemblable qu'il s'agisse d'un oiseau echappe de captivite, surtoutvu la date inhabituelle de fobservation. O n 15 July 2005, while in South Africa on a graphs through my telescope but, as the adapter birding trip, I visited Kgalagadi National was broken, I had to handhold the camera, and Park, near the Namibian border in the Kalahari the pictures were notvery good. Desert, Northern Cape. Around 16.30 hrs, at the I observed the bird for c.30 minutes from a CraigLockhartwaterhole, 18.8 km south ofMata distanceofc.20 mandcompiledawritten descrip- Mata Rest Camp, I noticed a bird that appeared tion. The bird possessed a black head, throat and familiar, butwhich I could notinitiallyidentify. It upper breast, black wings, a brownish-pink back was accompanied by several adult and juvenile and uppertail-coverts, pink bellyand flanks, black Wattled Starlings Creatophora cinerea as well as a thighs and ablacktail. The undertail-coverts were Cape GlossyStarlingLamprotornisnitens andwas black with a scaly appearance. The bill was pink- , obviously also a starling. It recalled a Rose- ish redwith ablackbase, the legs pinkish red.The coloured Starling Sturnus roseus but my southern bird was similar in size to a juvenile Wattled , African field guide (Sinclair et al. 2002) did not Starling, but appeared less slender. even mention this species. I took some photo- Figures 1-2. Rose-colouredStarlingSturnusroseus KgalagadiNational Park, SouthAfrica, 15July2005 (Jorgen Sagvik) , EtourneauroselinStunusroseus ParcNationalde Kgalagadi,AfriqueduSud, 15juillet2005 (JorgenSagvik) , A recordofRose-colouredStarlinginsouthernAfrica:Sagvik BullABCVol16No 1 (2009)-89 Eventually, as I moved somewhat closer to Acknowledgements obtain better photographs, a car flushed all ofthe I thank Callan Cohen for placing the photographs birds. The starling, which by now I felt quite cer- on BirdingAfrica’s homepage. Thanks also to David tain must be a Rose-coloured Starling, was not Fisher, Jeremy Lindsell, Mike Meidlinger, Killian seen again. I subsequently consulted several Mullarney, Dick Newell, Georges Olioso, Philip rangersatthecamps, butnonecouldhelpwiththe Whittington and ChrisWormwell for theirvaluable identification. Backin Sweden, I contacted Callan comments, and to Ron Demeyfor helping me draft Cohen in Cape Town, who placed the photo- this note. graphs on the Birding Africa homepage and the References bird was soon confirmed to be a Rose-coloured Starling. The brownish tone to the back suggests Cramp, S. & Perrins, C. M. (eds.) 1994. The Birds of that it was probably a second calendar-year bird the Western Palearctic. Vol. 8. Oxford: Oxford yet to attain full adult plumage (Cramp & Perrins UniversityPress. & Fry, C. H., Keith, S. Urban, E. K. (eds.) 2000. The 1994). Birds ofAfrica. Vol. 6. London, UK: Academic This is the first record of Rose-coloured Press. Starling for southern Africa and only the second Schollaert, V. 2006. First record of Rose-coloured south ofthe Sahara, following one in Ethiopia cA StarlingSturnusroseusforEthiopiaandsub-Saharan months previously (Fry et al. 2000, Schollaert Africa. Bull. ABC13: 75. 2006), though the possibility that the birdwas an Sinclair,I., Hockey, P. &Tarboton,W.2002. SasolBirds escape cannot be eliminated, especially consider- ofSouthernAfrica. CapeTown: Struik. ing the unusual date ofthe record. More recently a third record, again from Ethiopia, concerned DepartmentofZoology,AnimalEcology, Medicinaregatan two birds in breeding plumage photographed 18, 405 30 Goteborg, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] amidst a flock of Wattled Starlings in Abiatta- Shalla Lakes National Park, in lateApril 2007 (R. Received 20 October 2005; revision accepted 12 April ABC Tizard in Bull. 14: 222). 2008. First record of Wahlberg’s Honeybird Prodotiscus regulus for The Gambia Kevin Roy Premiere mention de PIndicateur de Wahlberg Prodotiscus regulus pour la Gambie. Un Indicateur de Wahlberg Prodotiscus regulus a ete observe a Kulari Swamp (13°23’N 14°06’W), Upper River Division, Gambie, le 30 septembre2006. Ceci constituelapremiere donneepourle pays, les mentions precedentes les plus proches provenant du Mont Nimba ala frontiere entre la Guinee et le Liberia. O n 30 September 2006, at 12.30 hrs, whilst pricklyshrub, attheswampedge. For3-4minutes birding around Kulari Swamp (13°23’N it flitted between low perches in isolated speci- 14°06’W), near my home in the Upper River mens of those shrubs at a distance of 10-30 m, Division ofThe Gambia, I observed a plain, dull- occasionally flicking and flaring its tail. It picked plumaged, sparrow-sized bird with an undulating an insect from the ground and finallydisappeared flight and conspicuous white outer rectrices in the adjacentwoodland, not to be seen again. emerge from a dense savanna woodland and land, Initially I thought it was a Lesser Honeyguide c.1 m aboveground, in aMimosapigra, an invasive Indicator minor, a rare bird in the Upper River 90-BullABCVol16No 1(2009) FirstrecordofWahlberg’sHoneybirdforTheGambia:Roy