Sunday bird blogging

This is a Kurrichane thrush, hopping on a lawn in Johannesburg. Some of them had very orange beaks and legs, but this relatively somber specimen is my clearest photo.

Sick and a little homesick my last day in Africa, watching birds while I drank tea in the hotel garden, I paid more attention to these guys than I might have otherwise because the way they hopped around on the lawn reminded me of American robins -- though with a very unrobin-like habit of suddenly jumping up a foot or so off the ground to snatch a tasty insect. Our robins dig for their dinner.

I wasn't surprised when I looked them up in the field guide and saw the scientific name -- turdus libonyanus -- and realized that they're actually a close relative (American robins are turdus migratorius), part of the same wing of the thrush family.