Sunday bird blogging

Africa is definitely going to win any global competition for Bird Names that Sound Like Someone Just Made Them Up; after all, they have the spotted thick-knee and the go-away bird, not to mention the ever popular chestnut-vented tit-babbler.

In the spirit of competition, then, may I offer -- the yellow-bellied sapsucker! This is one of the few funny bird names that I knew long before I ever looked with interest on a bird, so it was a little disappointing to find that they're basically -- woodpeckers. And that their bellies are about as yellow as a red-bellied woodpecker's is red, which is to say, Not very.