Hongbenghe is at once on the border to Myanmar – sooner than COVID-19, it was once simple sufficient to stroll around 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 the vital much less glamorous of the circle of relatives, specifically the subspecies present in Yunnan, however nonetheless a pleasant sight and nonetheless a pitta.
For the reason that in step with the HBW, the species prefers dense number one and secondary montane forests, the observe that the hen additionally forages amongst kitchen waste (in the similar HBW access) turns out reasonably incongruous.
The medical 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 exhausting some of these in another country civil servants actually labored of their day jobs.
It sort of feels this species is shy even by means of pitta requirements – the HBW calls it a “very shy and secretive pitta, simply lost sight of” and says that it’s “very uncommon in China (S. Yunnan)”.
Hongbenghe is a great position to look a number of laughingthrush species:
The Purple-tailed Laughingthrush, Trochalopteron milnei, is known as after a modern of Mr. Oates, the French professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835 – 1900). His obituary was once revealed in Nature.
This is a bit being concerned that whilst the Basel Zoo is indexed by means of Google as having a web page at the Purple-tailed Laughingthrush, that web page itself does no longer appear to exist anymore, and the species isn’t indexed a number of the population of the aviary of the zoo. Moderately most likely, this laughingthrush is now in the neighborhood extinct in Switzerland or a minimum of in Basel.
And naturally, this access at the Purple-tailed Laughingthrush would no longer be entire with out citing a paper that possibly no person will ever learn: “Your entire mitochondrial genome of red-tailed laughingthrush ( Garrulax milnei )”. As standard, there are lots of authors (8 on this case), and all appear to be Chinese language (additionally as standard). I ponder why.
The White-crested Laughingthrush appears adore it may simply play a cameo position in a Wham! video.
(Notice to these readers who have no idea Wham!: Congratulations, you’re a lot more youthful than me and were given spared a large number of in point of fact terrible song).
This laughingthrush is a cooperative breeder – nestlings are fed by means of all contributors of a bunch, incessantly 6-12 (no longer simply 2 as in Wham!):
“A feminine would possibly percentage a nest with some other, and three or extra adults would possibly take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks.” (supply).
Survival charges of chicks building up when there are helpers provide – and if in captivity this isn’t an possibility, people too can take where of helpers (supply).
In Singapore, the White-crested Laughingthrush is well-liked regardless of no longer being local and has some traits of an invasive species (supply).
The medical title of the Gray-sided Laughingthrush, caerulatus (darkish blue), makes a lot more sense to me than the average title.
Surprisingly, the generally slightly correct eBird description additionally fails to say the gorgeous blue across the eyes of the species: “Darkish rufous above and grayish-white underneath, with a silver ear patch, vivid white throat, and a black patch across the eye.”
Much more unusually, the U.S. Fish & Flora and fauna Provider has a internet web page for this species – nevertheless it comprises completely no knowledge.
The Higher Necklaced Laughingthrush used to react to being referred to as Garrulax pectoralis however now most effective comes for those who name it Pterorhinus pectoralis after some DNA research and the resurrection of the previous genus Pterorhinus. I’m penning this most commonly as a result of I really like the unusual associations with the time period “resurrecting a genus” – it has one thing about Jesus at the pass to it. Regardless that it generally takes longer than 3 days, I assume.
This additionally approach it’s not carefully associated with the Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush (no longer proven), which remained in Garrulax. Without a doubt, the Lesser NLT will likely be relieved to not be bossed round by means of its erstwhile larger circle of relatives member anymore.
The Scarlet-faced Liocichla (Liocichla ripponi) is but some other hen named after some forgotten ornithologist who were given despatched to India to do empire paintings and as an alternative most commonly 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 hen” …
… and will get contradicted by means of the HBW which calls it a “slightly small babbler, most commonly undeniable brown”.
Sadly, the Black-throated Laughingthrush is suffering from the hen business, and a conservation society is looking for its inclusion within the Conference on Global Industry in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Plant life.
Underneath is a citation at once from this paper by means of the Observe Conservation Analysis Society:
“Industry information from the variability nations of Thailand and Vietnam and from Indonesia and USA, each non-range nations, printed 10,841 Black-throated Laughingthrushes in business, throughout 762 visits to 51 markets between 1966 and 2019. The bulk (63%) had been recorded in places out of doors the species’ differ. Attention-grabbing too was once that the costs had been best possible in the US and lowest in Thailand, and that costs in Indonesia indicated prime call for and lengthening shortage.”
The Black-breasted Thrush has the reasonably misogynistic medical title dissimilis – why misogynistic? (Rhetorical query, I don’t be expecting a solution from you).
It appears, the dissimilis (“not like, other”) refers back to the distinction between the male and the feminine of the species.
And within the HBW, Edward Blyth is quoted as mentioning that he in spite of everything noticed “a male, which, as I all alongside suspected, proved to be clad in no longer relatively so homely a garb as his mate. The male is, certainly, somewhat a good-looking Thrush.”
No such variations within the Blue Whistling Thrush, despite the fact that the HBW nonetheless states that “Feminine is the same however duller”, which refers back to the colour somewhat than the IQ of the hen (I’m hoping).
The HBW access additionally has a pleasant instance for an ornithologist pronouncing the phrase “bullshit” with out the usage of any swearwords: “Race flavirostris [a subspecies] has been thought to be most likely to advantage complete species standing, however foundation for this kind of separation unclear”.
At Hongbenghe, some Blue Rock Thrushes it appears be afflicted by delusions of grandeur.
Sure, I are aware of it is getting slightly uninteresting, however the medical species title of the Rufous-headed Parrotbill, bakeri, honors but some other British ornithologist, Edward Charles Stuart Baker (1864-1944).
Wikipedia studies that he “was once a very good tennis participant and an enthusiastic giant recreation hunter. He misplaced his left arm to a panther …, was once tossed by means of a gaur [an Indian bison] and trampled by means of an Indian rhinoceros right through quite a lot of searching expeditions”.
He might also had been slightly of a fraud, in step with Wikipedia: “One of the most nest and eggs in his assortment had been thought to be as of doubtful provenance and there are tips that he artificially made up one of the crucial clutches. Some like Charles Vaurie have thought to be it so unreliable that they even recommended the destruction of his egg assortment.”
Smartly, a minimum of he was once no longer concerned within the slave business.
The Faded-billed Parrotbill appears reasonably equivalent, and I most effective were given dangerous footage of it.
However the black eyebrow additionally highlighted in its medical title of atrosuperciliaris (“black eyebrowed”) differentiates it from the former species.
Why any person would need to title a hen species – on this case, the Rusty-fronted Barwing – after a paleontologist is past me, nevertheless it took place.
The deficient species has the medical title egertoni, after Sir Philip de Malpas Gray-Egerton (1806-1881), who was once no longer just a paleontologist but in addition a conservative baby-kisser (says Wikipedia, no longer me).
Maximum folks one day in time have puzzled in regards to the intestine microbiota of Silver-eared Mesias. In particular, we’re all specifically within the microbiota of birds residing in a mining house.
Thankfully, some other folks don’t simply take into accounts this factor however act. The result’s a contemporary paper titled “Comparability of intestine microbiota between immigrant and local populations of the Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris) residing in mining house”.
This Streaked Spiderhunter appeared to be obsessive about cleanliness – the German phrase could be “Waschzwang”, which in English is one thing like “washing compulsion”.
Why that? One paper would possibly supply 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 global tick list to the genus”.
I’d additionally take a number of showers if I had feather mites.
Or perhaps it simply enjoys taking showers.
And sure, very similar to the lengthy novels of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the long identify of the paper comes from a Russian scientist.
In any case, a couple of species simply as footage, with none worrying knowledge (that is the excuse – if truth be told, I’m simply drained of looking for knowledge):
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch …
…. White-tailed Robin …
…. and White-throated Fantail.
