Tomohon is a city in North Sulawesi about 30 km south of Manado, town and airport the place birders are most probably to reach. Given the situation of the roads and the upper elevation (700-1000 meters) in comparison with Manado, it takes about one hour to get right here from Manado.
Considered one of its fairly doubtful claims to fame is its market – solely in July 2023, canine and cat meat buying and selling was banned on the market, with merchants on the market agreeing to not promote or slaughter canine and cats.
Nonetheless, the hunt for what’s euphemistically referred to as “bushmeat” continues. I noticed some individuals within the fields who had simply caught some rats, and the native information talked about his neighbors in his village even searching pittas.
In an article, an area conservationist describes the awful scenario as follows: “Over-exploitation drives the decline of iconic species and their habitats attributable to looking for the unlawful wildlife commerce. The northern a part of Sulawesi is an unlawful wildlife commerce hub for the area, supplying wildlife to markets throughout Asia and past. Attempting to find subsistence is frequent round forested areas and consists of the gathering of maleo eggs for meals. There’s additionally a thriving bushmeat market for a lot of wildlife species.”
Three birds are the primary targets for visiting birders right here (a honeyeater, a kingfisher, and a pitta) – however a number of the different species are very fascinating as nicely.
The Sulawesi Myzomela is a near-endemic on Sulawesi, and a member of the honeyeater household – a household principally present in Australia.
It’s thus on the Wallacea facet of the Wallace line, which Wikipedia defines as follows:
“The Wallace line is a faunal boundary line drawn by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that separates Asia and ‘Wallacea’, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. To the west of the road are discovered organisms associated to Asiatic species; to the east, a mix of species of Asian and Australian origins is current.”
The reason for this borderline is that even when the ocean water ranges had been a lot decrease within the distant previous, there was nonetheless a deep-water hole between the 2 sides of the Wallace line, permitting for species differentiation.
Why anybody would name the Sulawesi Myzomela “yellow-winged” (Myzomela chloroptera is the scientific identify) is a thriller to me.
The Sulawesi Myzomela appears fairly plentiful on the Gardenia Nation Inn, a considerably upmarket bungalow resort in Tomohon – thankfully, there isn’t any want to remain there in a single day as additionally they serve respectable lunch, which (as meals in Indonesian eating places are inclined to take fairly some time in comparison with what I’m used to from China) provides you time to search for this and another species.
Two munias also can simply be seen within the gardens of the resort – the Scaly-breasted Munia …
… which may also be present in Shanghai, despite the fact that the vary map within the HBW doesn’t appear to concentrate on this truth …
… and the fairly elegant-looking Chestnut Munia, about which eBird is unusually unenthusiastic (“a small, plump reddish brown finch”). Possibly the reviewer had some private points on the day of writing the entry.
A non-birder pal with Afghan roots had the next affiliation: “Seems to be like a niqab! Some Muslim ladies appear like this.”
In fact, Sooty-headed Bulbuls are additionally simply discovered within the resort gardens.
One examine on their vocalization states “We assume that vocalizations play necessary roles within the communication of the three species as a result of we famous these or these sounds in nearly all observations.” Hmm, vocalizations are related for communication, what an fascinating concept.
As these birds should not silly (at the very least the people evolution has not weeded out over time), their flight initiation distance (i.e., how shut they let a human get to them earlier than flying away) relies on the native searching stress (supply). As searching stress on Sulawesi usually is pretty excessive, this typically makes it troublesome to see birds correctly, although it doesn’t apply throughout the resort gardens.
Admittedly, possibly the juveniles look a bit silly.
Whereas rails are troublesome to see in most locations, on Sulawesi (together with the resort gardens) the Barred Rail is frequent and straightforward to see.
Its scientific identify Gallirallus torquatus (torquatus means collared) doesn’t make an excessive amount of sense for the Sulawesi subspecies – different subspecies have a crimson breastband which presumably gave the species its identify.
These rails share the gardens with the Isabelline Bush-hen, which is a Sulawesi endemic.
The isabelline in its identify (and in addition in its scientific identify) apparently signifies the colour (“isabelline-coloured, greyish-yellow”), although I might be hard-pressed to name the colour of the chook greyish-yellow.
One other species one may encounter on the resort gardens is the Sulawesi Hanging Parrot also referred to as Nice Hanging Parrot (that is regardless of eBird calling it a small parrot – Wikipedia explains that “With a complete size of roughly 15 cm, it’s a small parrot, however the largest species of hanging parrot.”)
Presumably the “stigmatus” (branded) within the scientific identify Loriculus stigmatus refers back to the crimson throat patch.
The male additionally has a crimson crown which the feminine lacks.
The resort gardens even have at the very least three species of sunbirds – the Sahul Sunbird previously referred to as Twitter …
… (probably not, it was break up from the Olive-backed Sunbird although) …
… the Crimson Sunbird …
… and the Black Sunbird. I take it as a sign of my spectacular masculinity that of the latter two species, solely females got here to have their photograph taken by me.
At Gunung Mahawu, a mountain close to Tomohon, extra species will be discovered – a number of species of White-eyes together with the Black-crowned White-eye …
… and the Pale-bellied White-eye.
The HBW lists 109 completely different species of Zosterops White-eyes, a little bit of an overkill if you happen to ask me. It reveals within the similarity of names – aside from the Black-crowned White-eye, there may be additionally a Black-capped White-eye (not proven). And that doesn’t even embody White-eyes exterior of the Zosterops genus such because the Streak-headed White-eye, which I additionally noticed right here. Admittedly, it doesn’t appear like a typical White-eye.
Whereas eBird describes the Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher as a “colourful blue-and-orange flycatcher”, that is much less apparent in my fairly dangerous photograph. I’m blissful guilty this on the dangerous gentle on that day.
It appears to be a fairly underresearched species – the HBW states “Many features of life historical past, together with habits and breeding, stay primarily undescribed.” Possibly that is additionally the rationale for the considerably puzzling scientific identify Cyornis omissus (omissus means disregarded).
The Snowy-browed Flycatcher got here out higher and was the primary leisure whereas ready for Sulawesi Pitta for a very long time over two days.
A paper by a Malayan birdwatcher describes how the flycatcher used the birder as a feeding station, using the attraction of the sweaty birder for small bugs.
There’s additionally the Citrine Canary-flycatcher.
Whoever gave the species its scientific identify Culicicapa helianthea will need to have had a barely poetic streak – helianthea combines the phrases for “solar” and for “blossom, flower”.
As for the Sulawesi Pitta, the primary three makes an attempt to see the chook (of a complete length of about 12 or 13 hours) all resulted in full failure for a chook photographer like me. A lister (which Grammarly tries to alter to “A-lister” as it’s apparently not conversant in birder-specific phrases) might need discovered comfort in the truth that I heard the decision of the chook every time – however that solely meant I dreamt concerning the chook name, it didn’t give me the specified photograph.
That left the Scaly-breasted Kingfisher because the third predominant goal species – and thankfully, a really native chook information discovered a pair. Not a straightforward activity provided that eBird states that the chook is discovered “in dense understory of forests within the hills and mountains” (which turned out to be very true).
The feminine has a buff-colored eyebrow and mustache.
The scientific identify Actenoides princess honors Charles Lucien Jules Laurent 2nd Prince of Canino and of Musignano and Prince Bonaparte (1803-1857), a French ornithologist, taxonomist, and collector.
Whereas within the US in 1824, he tried to get the then-unknown John James Audubon accepted by the Academy of Pure Sciences, however this was opposed by the ornithologist George Ord who disliked Audubon’s dramatic chook poses and regarded him to be “a back-country upstart who romanticized his material” (from Wikipedia, the main world supply of trivial info).
Seeing a Crimson-crowned Flowerpecker was one other compensation for lacking out on the Sulawesi Pitta. And naturally, the hunt for the pitta was not over but.
