Hongbenghe is straight on the border to Myanmar – earlier than COVID-19, it was straightforward sufficient to stroll throughout the border on foot, however now a monstrous lengthy metal and barbed-wire fence separates the 2 nations. Very interesting to vacationers nostalgic for that iron curtain feeling.
That is the house of the Rusty-naped Pitta, admittedly one of many much less glamorous of the household, significantly the subspecies present in Yunnan, however nonetheless a pleasant sight and nonetheless a pitta.
Provided that in accordance with the HBW, the species prefers dense major and secondary montane forests, the be aware that the fowl additionally forages amongst kitchen waste (in the identical HBW entry) appears considerably incongruous.
The scientific species title of the Rusty-naped Pitta oatesi honors Eugene William Oates (1845-1911), an English civil servant in India and naturalist. He revealed a lot of books on birds of India and Burma, making me surprise how arduous all these abroad civil servants actually labored of their day jobs.
It appears this species is shy even by pitta requirements – the HBW calls it a “very shy and secretive pitta, simply ignored” and says that it’s “very uncommon in China (S. Yunnan)”.
Hongbenghe is an effective place to see a number of laughingthrush species:
The Pink-tailed Laughingthrush, Trochalopteron milnei, is called after a recent of Mr. Oates, the French professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835 – 1900). His obituary was revealed in Nature.
It’s a bit worrying that whereas the Basel Zoo is listed by Google as having a web page on the Pink-tailed Laughingthrush, that web page itself doesn’t appear to exist anymore, and the species shouldn’t be listed among the many inhabitants of the aviary of the zoo. Fairly probably, this laughingthrush is now domestically extinct in Switzerland or not less than in Basel.
And naturally, this entry on the Pink-tailed Laughingthrush wouldn’t be full with out mentioning a paper that presumably no person will ever learn: “The whole mitochondrial genome of red-tailed laughingthrush ( Garrulax milnei )”. As regular, there are a lot of authors (8 on this case), and all appear to be Chinese language (additionally as regular). I ponder why.
The White-crested Laughingthrush seems to be prefer it may simply play a cameo function in a Wham! video.
(Word to these readers who have no idea Wham!: Congratulations, you’re a lot youthful than me and obtained spared loads of really terrible music).
This laughingthrush is a cooperative breeder – nestlings are fed by all members of a bunch, usually 6-12 (not simply 2 as in Wham!):
“A feminine could share a nest with one other, and three or extra adults could take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks.” (supply).
Survival charges of chicks improve when there are helpers current – and if in captivity this isn’t an choice, people also can take the place of helpers (supply).
In Singapore, the White-crested Laughingthrush is widespread regardless of not being native and has some traits of an invasive species (supply).
The scientific title of the Gray-sided Laughingthrush, caerulatus (darkish blue), makes way more sense to me than the frequent title.
Unusually, the normally pretty correct eBird description additionally fails to say the attractive blue across the eyes of the species: “Darkish rufous above and grayish-white beneath, with a silver ear patch, vibrant white throat, and a black patch across the eye.”
Much more unusually, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has an internet web page for this species – but it surely accommodates completely no info.
The Larger Necklaced Laughingthrush used to react to being known as Garrulax pectoralis however now solely comes should you name it Pterorhinus pectoralis after some DNA research and the resurrection of the previous genus Pterorhinus. I’m penning this largely as a result of I just like the bizarre associations with the time period “resurrecting a genus” – it has one thing about Jesus on the cross to it. Although it normally takes longer than 3 days, I assume.
This additionally means it’s now not intently associated to the Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush (not proven), which remained in Garrulax. Little question, the Lesser NLT might be relieved to not be bossed round by its erstwhile greater member of the family anymore.
The Scarlet-faced Liocichla (Liocichla ripponi) is yet one more fowl named after some forgotten ornithologist who obtained despatched to India to do empire work and as a substitute largely did birdwatching – on this case, Lt.-Col. George Rippon (1861-1927), a member of the British Military in India and Burma.
eBird describes the species as a “garish medium-sized laughingthrush-like fowl” …
… and will get contradicted by the HBW which calls it a “pretty small babbler, largely plain brown”.
Sadly, the Black-throated Laughingthrush is affected by the fowl commerce, and a conservation society is asking for its inclusion within the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Beneath is a citation straight from this paper by the Monitor Conservation Analysis Society:
“Commerce knowledge from the vary nations of Thailand and Vietnam and from Indonesia and USA, each non-range nations, revealed 10,841 Black-throated Laughingthrushes in commerce, throughout 762 visits to 51 markets between 1966 and 2019. The bulk (63%) had been recorded in places exterior the species’ vary. Attention-grabbing too was that the costs had been highest within the USA and lowest in Thailand, and that costs in Indonesia indicated excessive demand and rising shortage.”
The Black-breasted Thrush has the considerably misogynistic scientific title dissimilis – why misogynistic? (Rhetorical query, I don’t count on a solution from you).
Apparently, the dissimilis (“in contrast to, completely different”) refers back to the distinction between the male and the feminine of the species.
And within the HBW, Edward Blyth is quoted as stating that he lastly noticed “a male, which, as I all alongside suspected, proved to be clad in not fairly so homely a garb as his mate. The male is, certainly, somewhat a good-looking Thrush.”
No such variations within the Blue Whistling Thrush, although the HBW nonetheless states that “Feminine is comparable however duller”, which refers back to the shade somewhat than the IQ of the fowl (I hope).
The HBW entry additionally has a pleasant instance for an ornithologist saying the phrase “bullshit” with out utilizing any swearwords: “Race flavirostris [a subspecies] has been thought of probably to benefit full species standing, however foundation for such a separation unclear”.
At Hongbenghe, some Blue Rock Thrushes apparently undergo from delusions of grandeur.
Sure, I do know it’s getting a bit boring, however the scientific species title of the Rufous-headed Parrotbill, bakeri, honors yet one more British ornithologist, Edward Charles Stuart Baker (1864-1944).
Wikipedia reviews that he “was a superb tennis participant and an enthusiastic huge sport hunter. He misplaced his left arm to a panther …, was tossed by a gaur [an Indian bison] and trampled by an Indian rhinoceros throughout numerous searching expeditions”.
He might also have been a little bit of a fraud, in accordance with Wikipedia: “Among the nest and eggs in his assortment have been thought of as of doubtful provenance and there are ideas that he artificially made up among the clutches. Some like Charles Vaurie have thought of it so unreliable that they even advised the destruction of his egg assortment.”
Effectively, not less than he was not concerned within the slave commerce.
The Pale-billed Parrotbill seems to be considerably comparable, and I solely obtained dangerous pictures of it.
However the black eyebrow additionally highlighted in its scientific title of atrosuperciliaris (“black eyebrowed”) differentiates it from the earlier species.
Why anybody would wish to title a fowl species – on this case, the Rusty-fronted Barwing – after a paleontologist is past me, but it surely occurred.
The poor species has the scientific title egertoni, after Sir Philip de Malpas Gray-Egerton (1806-1881), who was not solely a paleontologist but additionally a conservative politician (says Wikipedia, not me).
Most of us sooner or later in time have puzzled in regards to the intestine microbiota of Silver-eared Mesias. Particularly, we’re all significantly within the microbiota of birds dwelling in a mining space.
Luckily, some folks don’t simply take into consideration this situation however act. The result’s a current paper titled “Comparability of intestine microbiota between immigrant and native populations of the Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris) dwelling in mining space”.
This Streaked Spiderhunter gave the impression to be obsessive about cleanliness – the German phrase can be “Waschzwang”, which in English is one thing like “washing compulsion”.
Why that? One paper could present an evidence: “A brand new species of the feather mite genus Analges Nitzsch, 1818 (Acariformes: Analgidae) from the Streaked Spiderhunter Arachnothera magna (Passeriformes Nectariniidae), with a renewed analysis and world guidelines to the genus”.
I’d additionally take a number of showers if I had feather mites.
Or possibly it simply enjoys taking showers.
And sure, much like the lengthy novels of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the prolonged title of the paper comes from a Russian scientist.
Lastly, just a few species simply as pictures, with none annoying info (that is the excuse – in actuality, I’m simply uninterested in looking for info):
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch …
…. White-tailed Robin …
…. and White-throated Fantail.
