Eastern Nicator

 

 

This Eastern Nicator made my day when I spotted it on a recent birding trip to the Kruger National Park where it was foraging in the underbrush and thickets. I first recorded this bird when it was still called Yellow-spotted Nicator. I liked the name as it is quite an apt description of the bird. During this recent trip at Punda Maria, I spotted the bird now going by its new name – Eastern Nicator – and thus it is sort of also a first. The beautiful call of this bird is quite striking. 

 

The Eastern Nicator, with its heavy bill and curved tip almost like a shrike, could possibly be closer to the shrikes as to the Bulbuls.