Di Linh is a city and district in South Vietnam a bit lower than 2 hours southwest of Dalat. It’s the sort of small place that also provides some residing house to birds proper within the city – witness this Chestnut-tailed Starling nesting in a lamppost.
The skilled bullshitters/ChatGPT customers from our pals of Nepaldesk recognize the species of their typical method: “The Chestnut-tailed Starling is undeniably a fascinating chook that continues to captivate chook fans in Nepal and past. Embarking on a journey to watch this alluring creature provides not solely an exhilarating birdwatching expertise but additionally a possibility to understand the wealthy biodiversity of Nepal’s beautiful landscapes.”
There was an article in The Economist lately wherein using sure phrases in scientific papers was used as an indicator for using AI in writing them (amongst others, phrases comparable to “pivotal” and “realm” are disproportionately favored by LLMs) – for me, “enchanting” is such a phrase.
Di Linh has some mountains – and birders know that mountains are typically good for birds as they’re an impediment to intensive farming. Because the altitude is greater than at Cat Tien, it’s a pretty nice place to chook, and there are just a few chook blinds with fascinating common guests.
Nevertheless, the primary one visiting our blind of the day was one the proprietor of the cover was not too captivated with – a Collared Owlet.
It didn’t appear to thoughts the blind and apparently thought the marginally extra open space in entrance of the blind supplied good looking alternatives. Sadly, probabilities have been that it was attempting to find a few of the similar birds we have been ready for, so ultimately the blind proprietor shushed it away.
The scientific literature describes the Collared Owlet as robbing chicks from Inexperienced-backed Tit nestboxes – so it’s attainable that the Owlet certainly deterred a few of our targets from coming to the blind.
The species received its scientific identify Taenioptynx brodiei from Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862), a sergeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria, and President of the Royal School of Surgeons. Whereas he was a profitable medical physician and scientist, it appears he had nothing by any means to do with birds, not to mention owls.
Whereas many individuals – together with our information on that day – assume there are rufous and grey-brown colour morphs, current research confirmed that the colour variation is age-related (rufous birds are juveniles).
It’s typically a lot simpler to listen to than to see (ask me!) – the HBW calls the Collared Owlet a “tiny owl that always sings its distinctive tooting music by day, when its standing because the nemesis of small montane forest birds is confirmed by the mobbing it attracts”. An actual nemesis chook then.
Notice the faux eyes behind the pinnacle – I ponder whether tattooing related eyes to the again of my neck may enable me to stroll harmful metropolis streets extra safely …
“I’m watching you”
As soon as the owl was gone, extra birds got here to the blind – a few of them not notably fascinating, comparable to …
… Gray-eyed Bulbul …
… and Ochraceous Bulbul.
Then, Indochinese Blue Flycatchers, which apparently are a fairly disturbance-tolerant species.
A examine discovered {that a} dam in-built Thailand 31 years in the past has precipitated the native chook inhabitants to break down – however the Indochinese Blue Flycatcher was one of many few species not notably affected.
Sadly, the title of the examine is “Damning Proof of Dam’s Impacts on Rainforest Birds”. Go away the unhealthy puns to me, please.
Generally I believe I benefit from the “bonus birds” at a chook blind greater than the precise major targets – the latter are a should, however the former really feel like a free present. Like this Black-chinned Yuhina.
A web site named Thatpetplace states that the “Black-Chinned Yuhina, Yuhina nigrimenta, is without doubt one of the few small non-seedeaters which have gained favor in non-public chook collections. Whereas its dietary wants are usually not straightforward to satisfy, the Yuhina is a superb alternative for skilled keepers on the lookout for an uncommon, energetic chook that’s not typically seen in US collections.”
Typically, I’m at all times a bit stunned when folks ask me if I maintain birds at dwelling. I inform them that birds must be free, not in cages … In any case, residing with (presently) 13 cats would imply protecting the birds in cages on a regular basis, and the birds nonetheless would in all probability not really feel very a lot relaxed. So, no.
The White-bellied Erpornis is one other robust contender to be featured in my upcoming “Information to the Cute Birds of the World”.
After all, some researchers who don’t care a lot about cuteness needed to publish a paper on “The New Mitogenome of Erpornis zantholeuca (Aves: Passeriformes): Sequence, Construction, and Phylogenetic Analyses”. I believe they miss out.
The scientific identify Erpornis zantholeuca (“pale-yellow”) just isn’t notably artistic, however not less than it doesn’t have a good time any slave homeowners or individuals who ceaselessly ship voice messages.
The Black-headed Parrotbill is listed as Weak. When you take a look at its distribution map, it turns into apparent – it solely lives in a really small space of South Vietnam.
It’s named after Marguerite Delacour (1860-1954), the mom of French ornithologist Jean Delacour (Psittiparus margaritas). Delacour lived along with his mom who died in 1954 on the age of 94 (supply).
He established very profitable aviaries twice in his life – the primary one was destroyed in World Warfare One, the second in World Warfare 2. Bummer.
Thus his conclusion – acknowledged in his autobiography – that people would ultimately annihilate all life on earth.
The Orange-headed Thrush has the unhealthy luck of being a very good songbird.
At the very least in Bali, Indonesia, this has led to intensive harvesting of Orange-headed Thrush chicks, leading to only a few profitable nests (supply):
“Properly-organized agent networks equipped an estimated 116,000 chicks value EUR 3.175 million from Bali throughout the 6-month harvest season. Chicks are harvested when 4–16 days previous and exported from Bali when 16–18 days previous. Of fifty nests adopted 60% have been harvested and simply 6% fledged younger.”
Why? An excerpt from one other paper gives a solution:
“In 2005, an Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina known as Valium scored a hat-trick by profitable all three of the highest lessons at an Indonesian nationwide songbird contest. The chook’s proprietor acquired a proposal of Rp 250 million (€18,000) however declined to promote.”
Earlier than Bali was found as a supply of chicks, demand for Orange-headed Thrushes is believed to have precipitated native extinctions throughout Java throughout the late Nineties. No surprise that the species is described as shy and crepuscular within the HBW.
There are additionally birds out within the open. Black Bulbuls apparently wish to scan the world from the very best posts accessible. Because the picture beneath reveals, it appears to be a profitable technique.
People of the full-black morph in all probability typically surprise why their scientific identify is Hypsipetes leucocephalus (white-headed).
The juvenile has not but realized apply lipstick to its beak and ft.
eBird calls the Streaked Spiderhunter a “massive and noisy inhabitant of tropical and subtropical hill forests” though the species just isn’t notably large – however it could be that the scientific identify Arachnothera magna suggests a giant dimension.
Within the Nineteenth century, it was widespread for e-book titles to comprise very detailed info – right here is an instance: “A Basic Historical past of Birds: With A Description of the Species and Their Habits, and a Explicit Account of Such Birds as are Natives of Nice Britain: Illustrated with Engravings, on a Giant Scale, from the Most Celebrated Authors” by John Latham, revealed between 1821 and 1828.
Whereas Sergey V. Mironov of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia revealed his paper in 2019, it appears to have been impressed by Nineteenth-century habits, although the subject he covers just isn’t fairly as broad: “A NEW SPECIES OF THE FEATHER MITE GENUS ANALGES NITZSCH, 1818 (ACARIFORMES: ANALGIDAE) FROM THE STREAKED SPIDERHUNTER ARACHNOTHERA MAGNA (PASSERIFORMES: NECTARINIIDAE), WITH A RENEWED DIAGNOSIS AND WORLD CHECKLIST TO THE GENUS”.
Lastly, the Maroon Oriole.
The maroon feathers of this oriole comprise canthaxanthin, a-doradexanthin, and one carotenoid, 30,4-dihydroxy-e,ecarotene-3-one (supply). As a Ph.D. chemist, I can convincingly faux these phrases imply one thing to me.
An extended video that includes the species will be discovered right here – it was produced by the Taiwan Forestry Analysis Institute in 2000, so it feels a bit like previous movies one watched in school when the trainer was too lazy to do any instructing.
