The Widespread Inexperienced Magpie appears to be like something however frequent. (I swear I got here up with this sentence myself however later noticed that Australian Geographic has a webpage titled “The frequent inexperienced magpie is something however”, which robs me of my illusions of being an authentic thinker).
In line with the eBird description, it’s every thing I’m not: a “neon-colored, noisy, extremely social fowl”. Shudder to suppose (not the fowl half although).
Subsequent, this publish has an extended part on babblers, a really ill-defined class of birds. However a few of them look fairly fascinating.
If the White-crested Laughingthrush will not be out there, generally White-hooded Babblers take their place in Wham! movies (see Birding Hongbenghe half 1 to grasp this obscure and never excellent joke).
Sadly, juvenile White-hooded Babblers don’t look cool and hedonistic sufficient but, so they’re often excluded from these movies.
Curiously, these juveniles look extra much like one other species, the Pale-billed Parrotbill, than the grownup babblers – and so they generally are a part of the identical flock. An fascinating paper discusses the visible convergence of species in multi-species flocks whereas an internet web page has a putting picture exhibiting the similarity of two species, one a cutia and one a sibia (picture by Wenyi Zhou, along with his permission).
Right here is the Sibia – the Rufuous-backed Sibia, to be particular – as seen at Hongbenghe.
One proposed rationalization by the researchers for this phenomenon is that similar-looking birds scale back their danger of predation, as predators discover it harder to deal with and isolate a single goal. My various idea is that the birds are simply following style, imitating whoever is the best. It was like that after I went to high school, why wouldn’t it work for birds …
If you happen to noticed a paper titled “Street Crossing by Birds in a Tropical Forest in Northern Vietnam”, would you – like me – additionally instantly visualize cute tiny visitors lights and small birds lining up and ready in entrance of them? Then we’re each hopeless … Anyway, the paper exams whether or not small roads in a forest are a hindrance to birds – are they reluctant to cross? (not due to the ready time because the examine doesn’t truly contain tiny visitors lights, sadly). They discovered that for understory birds just like the Puff-throated Babbler, these roads are certainly a hindrance.
(If you wish to see how this species builds its nest, see right here.)
These roads are a lot much less of a hindrance for the Pin-striped Tit-babbler, a mid-story fowl.
That species is apparently liable to extinction in Singapore – not as a result of it’s so uncommon, however as a result of its genetic range is so low. Consider that earlier than sleeping together with your sister.
(Beginning lyrics of “Razzmatazz”, a wonderful track by Pulp: “The issue together with your brother / he’s all the time sleeping together with your mom”).
In line with Wikipedia, “scimitar babblers are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed land birds with mushy fluffy plumage. They’ve sturdy legs and are fairly terrestrial. … [They] have lengthy, downward-curved payments, used to work by way of the leaf litter … They’re sometimes lengthy tailed, darkish brown above, and white or orange-brown under. Many have putting head patterns, with a broad black band by way of the attention, bordered with white above and under. Most scimitar babblers are jungle species, troublesome to watch within the dense vegetation they like, however like different babblers, these are noisy birds …”
My private favourite is the Massive Scimitar-Babbler, which eBird calls a “good-looking and barely primal-looking babbler” (you possibly can kind of think about this fowl as being saved as a pet by some cartoonish stone-age folks – “Fred Flintstone and the Massive Scimitar-Babbler”, maybe?).
Not like me, the HBW doesn’t appear to understand the species a lot, stating that it’s “hopping about in very ungainly method.”
That is then adopted by a fairly ungainly description of the species’ vocalization, which I’ll quote in full regardless of the danger of being sued:
“Music a geographically and individually variable sequence of often 3 brief, syncopated, loud, hole notes, the upper notes candy and sad-sounding, typically from duetting pairs, e.g. “wiu-pu-pu—wup-up-piu, wiu-pu-pu—wo-hu, whiu-pu-pu—whip-up-up”, “wiao-pu-pu—hu-pwuhu” and comparable; particular person phrase variants embody “oh-pu”, “whiu-wao” and hurried “wiupupu” and “whipuwup”, and so forth. Famous additionally as a easy, low, throaty “tyonk-tyonk-tyonk”, the notes an identical; a duetted “gul-díyá, gup”; “gru-grugyúp”, generally blended with “gru-grugwééyu”; a low “greo-greo, hwéeo-wup-wup”; “wulchéwpit” (one fowl) after which “wildéwdit” (different fowl), the second barely thinner and better; “gu-gu-gruu, kúú”, final observe (by second fowl) stage and bell-like. Name in agitation a loud, harsh, grating rattle, beginning with vehement upward-inflected hiss, e.g. “fwíí-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke” or “whít-tchtchtchtch”, softer and barely slower close to finish; additionally a brief, onerous “puh”.”
Don’t despair in the event you want smaller Scimitar-Babblers – evolution has developed a number of options for you. Just like the Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler …
… and the Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler.
Would you utilize extra sunscreen lotion when going up a mountain than when staying at sea stage? That will be sensible, I suppose – and so evolution has taught the Rufous-capped Babbler to do the identical.
Apparently, the plumage of Rufous-capped Babblers occupying montane habitats had larger UV-reflectance and brightness than that of lowland birds, akin to the upper UV depth in montane than lowland background gentle environments (observe: the photographs present Buff-chested Babbler, which I solely realized belatedly).
A barely extra readable account of this phenomenon will be discovered right here.
The Gray-throated Babbler will not be significantly shy and thus pretty straightforward to take photographs of.
Whereas the Streaked Wren-babbler is likely one of the fowl species that make grown-up fowl photographers cry.
Presumably straight after studying “The Lord of the Rings”, an eBird author got here up with the next description of the Gray Peacock-pheasant: “A wierd-looking pheasant which passes ghostlike by way of dense forests”.
The HBW helpfully provides that the fowl is never present in giant flocks – although they put it a bit otherwise: ” Often discovered alone, in pairs, or in small household events.”
The web site www.jwcpheasants.com appears to endorse polygamy for this species regardless of this being unlawful within the USA for different animals reminiscent of people. The location states that in captivity, “two hens will be paired with one male.”
Having recovered from studying Tolkien, eBird is a bit much less mysterious in regards to the Rufous-throated Partridge: “A phenomenal little gamebird of foothill and highland forests … Brightly-colored, even for a partridge”.
Like people, it’s “apparently monogamous” (HBW), which to me sounds a bit uncertain.
The Silver Pheasant appears a bit much like typical Chinese language (and in contrast to me) in liking noise and disturbance (I’m penning this throughout Chinese language New 12 months, a interval in time when the bizarre obsession of the Chinese language with noisy fireworks is especially apparent).
At the very least in Patagonia, the place this species has been launched: “The Silver Pheasant used way more incessantly areas with a excessive stage of disturbance, suggesting that the presence of disturbed habitats might facilitate institution and unfold of this species in Patagonia.” (supply). A weirdo, that fowl – who likes folks?
Then once more, it appears they thrive in captivity – see right here for particulars.
eBird calls the Hill Blue Flycatcher a “medium-sized complicated flycatcher”, which in itself is a bit complicated as there isn’t a clear rationale for calling the species complicated.
What is perhaps complicated is the scientific species identify whitei as there are seven totally different folks named White who all gave names to birds.
On this case, the proper one (in line with the HBW) is Sir Herbert Thirkell White (1855-1931), a British colonial administrator in Burma. He additionally wrote some books on Burma, considered one of which (“A Civil Servant in Burma”) Wikipedia calls a traditional. As this e book was revealed in 1913, it’s now freely out there on-line and you’ll learn sentences reminiscent of “The Burman has no head, and succumbs without delay to a relatively small amount of liquor” with out violating any copyright legal guidelines.
Nevertheless, mentioned e book solely comprises the phrase “fowl” 4 instances, twice not even which means actual birds (“mechanical singing birds”, “a uncommon fowl” referring to Burmese officers who usually are not corrupt), and twice in a fairly peripheral manner (“he shot birds on the wing”, “the consumption of flesh of birds”), which makes naming a fowl species after him an odd alternative.
The Pale Blue Flycatcher will not be significantly uniformly coloured, regardless of its scientific identify unicolor.
To cite eBird: “Male is pale blue total with a pale grey stomach”
You will discover a cute little statement on sleeping Widespread Tailorbirds right here. (observe: the picture exhibits Darkish-necked Tailorbird).
The observer notes that the tailorbirds usually have been sleeping peacefully on his balcony however “not after I was watching sure films that concerned fierce predators (horror film for the tailorbirds). I as soon as watched “Twilight: New Moon” on my laptop and immediately the tailorbirds awakened and chirped, hopped round in stress till I realised that they should have assumed that the werewolf within the present that have been designed to seem like actual wolfs as a menace. I lowered the quantity and after some time they obtained used to it and slowly went again to sleep.”
So, lesson realized: tailorbirds don’t recognize horror films.
In Gray-backed Shrikes (no less than these breeding on the Tibetan plateau), the eggs laid throughout one breeding try get bigger with time – presumably an try and no less than partly overcome the disadvantages the final chick faces (supply). That is in distinction to different species through which the later chicks typically primarily function meals for the sooner ones.
Serious about doing analysis on the Orange-bellied Leafbird?
Here’s what the HBW lists as priorities for future analysis:
“The taxonomic identification of Orange-bellied Leafbird in lots of areas stay to be investigated. The inhabitants in south-central Vietnam, together with Da Lat Plateau, is provisionally included in C. h. melliana however may characterize an undescribed subspecies. There are additionally experiences of people with intermediate traits between the very totally different taxa C. h. hardwickii and C. h. melliana from alleged contact zone(s) in northern Laos and probably south-western China. Hill ranges in japanese Myanmar and western Thailand are additionally suspected to be the intergradation zone between C. h. hardwickii and C. h. malayana, albeit extensively assigned the previous, as small-sized people resembling pure C. h. malayana had been collected. Extra genetic analysis and thorough phenotypic examination on populations in these areas are required.”
Or higher follow your present job as a door-to-door salesperson for vacuum cleaners.
The species can also be hunted for native consumption in Meghalaya (India), in line with the HBW.
For my part, eBird is a bit unfair to the feminine Rufous-bellied Niltava.
The location says “the male is brilliantly coloured …
… whereas the feminine is drab brown total”
I feel the tiny white and bluish bits of the feminine are fairly enticing – perhaps eBird ought to recognize delicate magnificence a bit extra.
Then once more, the HBW appears to disregard the feminine altogether, simply calling the species a “giant, stocky and brightly coloured flycatcher”.
