The nice part about being a ringer

[sna]

Having birds like these in the hand brings out the macro maniac in you!

Scarlet chested sunbirds (not the same one on both pictures, males on neighboring territories) caught in the guinea savanna zone in central Nigeria in January.

[Sindri Skulason]

Beautiful bird. :-)

[Anthony J Howe]

What a very colourful bird and so close-up, love these shots, well done.

[Ferco]

wow awsome closs ups!! nice one!!

[Gary Fairhead]

Magnificent looking birds but why are they caught?

[sna]

Thanks all! They are ringed for a marked/recapture study. They live in one of few reserves in central Nigeria and we've been ringing there since 2000 to find out how they utilize the reserve and how stable the pop. sizes are. Since 2000 (when the land was set aside as reserve) pop sizes of some of the rarer species have increased. The scarlet chested sunbird, above, is very common throughout this part of Africa, but all species caught are studied. And they're beautiful, as are these:

Senegal batis and african blue flycatcher

[Phreddie]

Amazing colours.

I love the way you can see the hairs around the mouth of the flycatcher - fantastic.

[Jim_T]

Great photos.. I love ALL bird shots, but it's nice to see the odd exotic one now and then. Great closeups..

[Helentbis]

Superb exotic birds. As you say, I guess that is one advantage of being a ringer, at least you don't have to rely on them flyng nearby for a close up shot ;)

[sna]

Thanks all!