I was fixing lunch about an hour ago when a bird I had never seen before landed in the back yard to join the crowd of weavers and sparrows for lunch. I managed to get a couple of pictures of it eating – the chunk of bread you see got stuck on his beak and he had a hard time getting it off. A quick look at birds of South Africa turned up the fact that it is a crested barbet. I include a professional shot from the web with no bread. In looking at the pictures I do not think they show how strange and kind of ugly it is. Notice the single band of red on the tail!

The last picture is of a LilacBreasted Roller – we saw two of these flying along when we were in Botswana – or maybe Mafikeng but could not get a picture. They are very beautiful and are a blur of color when flying