Bird Watching Tanzania - Help Us Identify This Bird

Tanzania and East Africa are known to have great bird watching and we plan to learn the birds while living here. In addition to the local species, Tanzania lies on the migration routes of many northern bird species so there are both the endemic species and the visitors. We’ve seen about ten species just in the hotel compound, though we don’t know the names since our bird book has yet to arrive.

We saw a small bird that looks like a black-headed Bulbul. Another little bird looked like a Finch but was only as big as a finger. Every night at dusk, dozens of giant fruit bats fly over the hotel like some sort of vampire fantasy.

Andrea spotted this amazing bird colony on our walk to breakfast. It’s a big cluster of nests in one big tree. There are probably 100 nests and the bright yellow/black birds enter the nests from a hole in the bottom. The nests look like a round water vase turned upside down.

Are these Orioles? Can anyone help us identify what kind of birds these are and why they nest upside down? Please comment below if you know.

Bird Nest Cluster in Morogoro, Tanzania