On this second put up on the birds of Tan Phu Forest, let’s get the bulbuls out of the best way first. Three appear to be notably frequent right here.
The Ochraceous Bulbul seems much like the Puff-throated Bulbul, with which it shares a genus – the similarity made certainly one of my journey companions doubt the entire framework of species distinctions.
Even for a bulbul, it’s a “cumbersome, very noisy, conspicuous” chicken (HBW).
The HBW additionally signifies that these bulbuls may be hooligans: “Associates in unfastened noisy events of 4–8 people … usually aggressively displaces smaller bulbuls”.
Presumably this consists of the Gray-eyed Bulbul, a a lot lighter chicken additionally usually seen at Tan Phu.
Not a very progressive chicken – based on one paper primarily taking a look at molt, solely feminine Gray-eyed Bulbuls construct the nest and incubate, whereas the males do typical male issues akin to bringing meals and defending the nest.
This conventional life-style suits effectively with its unexciting species identify of propinqua, that means one thing like “associated, comparable, neighboring” – the type of identify unimaginative scientists give to a brand new species that appears too boring to benefit naming it after some well-known ornithologist or wealthy sponsor.
The molt of the Stripe-throated Bulbul is the topic of one other paper.
Apparently, the molt of the males takes about 20 days longer than that of the females – the authors speculate that that is due to the completely different peak time efforts in breeding, with the males being concerned earlier (singing, establishing territory) than the females (incubating, nestling care).
The Streak-eared Bulbul is just not a favourite of the influential eBird crowd: a “uninteresting brown bulbul”, not precisely a ringing endorsement. The HBW appears to agree, remarking that the species “has pretty nondescript olive-brown plumage”.
That would definitely make for bitter studying for Capt. Paul Conrad (1836-1885), a German naturalist within the East Indies, after which the species is known as (Pycnonotus conradi).
However he could be delighted find a paper in regards to the completely different vocalizations of two geographically distinct populations of the bulbul – despite the fact that a lot of the paper (apart from the summary) is written in Thai and thus stunning to take a look at however fairly unintelligible to most of us.
There appears to be virtually no info on Paul Conrad besides that he used his life to get from Leonberg (the place he was born) to Bremen (the place he died). “You reside your complete life simply to journey to the place you?re gonna die” (Craig Finn, “Blankets”).
The Larger Coucal spends most of its life feeling superior to the Lesser Coucal.
Nonetheless, this affords no safety in opposition to superstition. Larger Coucal physique components are used as conventional medication by the Malays in Kuok Village in Indonesia (supply). Conventional knowledge generally is massively overrated.
Then once more, smaller birds may consider this superstition when studying a paper on a Larger Coucal feeding on a Widespread Myna.
An summary of a scientific paper reads as follows (unabridged): “Exterior examination of free vary deserted lifeless Larger Coucal in a veterinary dispensary, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India revealed presence of a big sized louse within the feathers and was recognized as Laemobothrion most on the idea of morphology and dimension of the louse.” Nonetheless, if you wish to learn the whole article, the pdf file prices 40 Euros. I’m questioning what extra info might presumably be in there. Possibly some background on the colour of the veterinary dispensary, or the birthdays of the authors.
Equally, a narrative titled “Name of the Larger Coucal” revealed by Middlebury School Publications can also be inaccessible to me, so I can not touch upon its literary or ornithological benefit. It begins with the sentence “Noomi wakes up early on Sunday morning as a result of her proper ear hurts with a uninteresting, common pulse.” Unsure if and when the coucal exhibits up within the story.
Considered one of my cats – when approached by me – usually exhibits one of many two following reactions – licking me or (play-)biting. Crimson Jungle Fowl spend their energetic time additionally virtually solely on two issues, particularly floor pecking (60%) and floor scratching (34%) (supply).
These Crimson Jungle Fowl lower than scratch are weeded out by evolution. Solely a small variety of probably the most dominant cocks and hens produced a lot of the adults of succeeding generations. Because of this, the genetically efficient breeding dimension of the inhabitants was solely about 13% of the variety of grownup birds. Whereas this sounds dangerous, the authors of this research declare it could be a constructive think about adaptive evolution (principally, the inferior birds don’t get to breed a lot). Should you suppose this sounds very Darwinian, then that’s as a result of it’s Darwinian.
Who will get weeded out? For one factor, these birds carrying parasites – they’re much less engaging as mates (supply).
And people roosters with much less purple irises and smaller combs (supply).
In distinction, the courtship conduct of the males didn’t make a lot of a distinction (supply). Given the lads some ladies select, it appears these outcomes are straight transferable to people as effectively.
That is probably not true for the outcomes of one other research taking a look at persona traits of Crimson Jungle Fowl over their life. Apparently, these traits will not be very constant, so a chick having sure persona traits might have fairly completely different ones as an grownup. Whereas that is fairly fascinating, the scientific phrases through which the authors describe their findings function a robust deterrent to informal readers: “Rank-order consistencies of behavioral responses had been general low throughout independence and sexual maturation”.
To my disappointment, eBird doesn’t spotlight how cute the White-bellied Erpornis is, solely describing it as a “small, crested, yuhina-like chicken”.
A missed alternative.
For the Indochinese Blue Flycatcher, eBird at the very least admits that it’s an “engaging long-tailed flycatcher”
The feminine.
A number of the Siberian Blue Robins seen at Tan Phu regarded remarkably shabby in comparison with those passing by Shanghai on migration. Possibly some pre-migration molt? Or simply sporting shabby garments if you find yourself not on a date anyway?
In keeping with Wikipedia, “Bronze is a metallic brown coloration which resembles the metallic alloy bronze”. This confirms my suspicion that whoever gave the identify to the Bronzed Drongo will need to have been colorblind.
The HBW admires their nest-building functionality: “noticed to function with nice precision, in excellent collaboration [between the two birds]”.
Bronzed Drongos are good mimics with a large repertoire of species they’ll imitate – the HBW provides Crested Serpent-eagle, Javan Cuckoo-shrike, and Orange-bellied Leafbird as examples.
The identical applies to Larger Racket-tailed Drongos. They use mimicry to confuse predators and opponents for meals, to draw mates, and to frustrate ornithologists and birders, although it appears I misplaced the hyperlink to a paper proving the latter.
Larger Racket-tailed Drongos can mimic alarm calls of different birds that they’ve discovered by way of interactions in mixed-species flocks. In keeping with Wikipedia, that is uncommon, as avian vocal mimicry was believed to be blind to the unique context of the imitated vocalization.
The species will need to have made fairly an impression on the primary Western observers – how else to clarify the scientific identify paradiseus? And no, there isn’t a Edward Paradiseus (1812-1853), however thanks for asking.
eBird calls Blyth’s Frogmouth a “cryptic, unusual nightbird”, and it was thus a pleasant shock to see it at Tan Phu.
Its species identify affinis could be very generic and doesn’t do its curious look justice – based on the HBW, over 85 kinds share this phrase. It signifies a relationship or similarity. As I mentioned, a fairly lame identify.
Should you suppose these images don’t present Blyth’s Frogmouth, you may simply be proper – the HBW entry has the ominous sentence “A lot confusion over species limits with regard to this and its shut allies”.
Edward Blyth, the English zoologist the frogmouth is known as after, is outwardly these days misused for example of a creationist by doubtful establishments such because the Creation Museum constructed by the Christian ministry Solutions in Genesis. A paper properly describes these false claims and appropriately summarizes “Regardless of AiG’s claims of being a legit science group, it doesn’t apply science because it accepts no scientific proof that contradicts its core tenets of a six-day creation and a younger earth”.
By the way, taking a look at images of Mr. Blyth, he does certainly resemble a frogmouth slightly bit. Possibly it’s the beard.
For some cause, Tan Phu appears to have kind of just one leaf warbler, the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. This makes figuring out the chicken simpler, but it surely doesn’t make the species extra fascinating.
The HBW describes the mating system of the Siamese Fireback as “apparently polygamous, with dominant male largely monopolizing proximity, and subsequently entry to all of the females in a gaggle” – which sounds fairly tiring.
As well as, nesting largely fails – one research states that solely 8% of those makes an attempt are profitable. Predation is the most important cause for the failure, regardless of the species’ cautious choice of nesting websites ideally between the buttresses of enormous timber.
The scientific species identify diardi is derived from French zoologist Pierre Médard Diard (1794-1863), who presumably additionally invented Diard’s Trogon.
Pour Mr. Diard apparently acquired cheated by Stamford Raffles, if I learn the Wikipedia entry appropriately: “In December 1818, Thomas Stamford Raffles invited them to accompany him on his journeys and pursue their collections in locations … they left with him on the idea that might equally share the collected animals. … After their arrival at Bencoulen in August 1819, Raffles requisitioned most of their assortment and left them copies of their drawings, descriptions and notes.”
Researchers learning these birds should be glad about digital camera traps – one research utilizing such traps obtained 1.74 images per 100 entice nights. Think about spending 100 nights in a single location and solely seeing your goal on two nights …
The Black-naped Monarch has numerous subspecies – the HBW lists 23 (one other paper – with some pretty images of nesting birds – provides the quantity 24). Out of curiosity, I requested ChatGPT for the chicken with the best variety of subspecies – ChatGPT confidently and virtually definitely wrongly claims it’s the Crimson-winged Blackbird with an estimated 20 to 24 subspecies.
Given the state of affairs of ladies in Iran, it was in all probability a nasty concept for a feminine Black-naped Monarch to indicate up within the nation, as described right here.
In case you are extra into virology than ornithology, you could be higher off following a distinct weblog – or you can take a look at this paper: “Detection of a novel astrovirus from a black-naped monarch (Hypothymis azurea) in Cambodia”.
