The Not unusual Inexperienced Magpie appears to be like the rest however commonplace. (I swear I got here up with this sentence myself however later noticed that Australian Geographic has a webpage titled “The typical inexperienced magpie is the rest however”, which robs me of my illusions of being an unique philosopher).
Consistent with the eBird description, it’s the entirety It’s not that i am: a “neon-colored, noisy, extremely social chicken”. Shudder to suppose (now not the chicken section despite the fact that).
Subsequent, this put up has a protracted segment on babblers, an overly ill-defined class of birds. However a few of them glance lovely fascinating.
If the White-crested Laughingthrush isn’t to be had, every now and then White-hooded Babblers take their position in Wham! movies (see Birding Hongbenghe section 1 to know this difficult to understand and now not superb shaggy dog story).
Sadly, juvenile White-hooded Babblers don’t glance cool and hedonistic sufficient but, so they’re generally excluded from those movies.
Curiously, those juveniles glance extra very similar to every other species, the Light-billed Parrotbill, than the grownup babblers – and so they every now and then are a part of the similar flock. An enchanting paper discusses the visible convergence of species in multi-species flocks whilst a internet web page has a putting picture appearing the similarity of 2 species, one a cutia and one a sibia (picture via Wenyi Zhou, along with his permission).
This is the Sibia – the Rufuous-backed Sibia, to be explicit – as noticed at Hongbenghe.
One proposed clarification via the researchers for this phenomenon is that similar-looking birds scale back their chance of predation, as predators to find it harder to concentrate on and isolate a unmarried goal. My choice principle is that the birds are simply following style, imitating whoever is the good. It was once like that after I went to college, why wouldn’t it paintings for birds …
Should you noticed a paper titled “Street Crossing via Birds in a Tropical Woodland in Northern Vietnam”, would you – like me – additionally right away visualize adorable tiny visitors lighting and small birds lining up and ready in entrance of them? Then we’re each hopeless … Anyway, the paper checks whether or not small roads in a woodland are a hindrance to birds – are they reluctant to go? (now not on account of the ready time because the learn about does now not in reality contain tiny visitors lighting, sadly). They discovered that for understory birds just like the Puff-throated Babbler, those roads are certainly a hindrance.
(If you wish to see how this species builds its nest, see right here.)
Those roads are a lot much less of a hindrance for the Pin-striped Tit-babbler, a mid-story chicken.
That species is it appears prone to extinction in Singapore – now not as a result of it’s so uncommon, however as a result of its genetic variety is so low. Call to mind that ahead of slumbering together with your sister.
(Beginning lyrics of “Razzmatazz”, a wonderful music via Pulp: “The issue together with your brother / he’s at all times slumbering together with your mom”).
Consistent with Wikipedia, “scimitar babblers are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed land birds with cushy fluffy plumage. They’ve sturdy legs and are reasonably terrestrial. … [They] have lengthy, downward-curved expenses, used to paintings in the course of the leaf muddle … They’re normally lengthy tailed, darkish brown above, and white or orange-brown underneath. Many have putting head patterns, with a large black band in the course of the eye, bordered with white above and underneath. Maximum scimitar babblers are jungle species, tough to watch within the dense plants they like, however like different babblers, those are noisy birds …”
My private favourite is the Huge Scimitar-Babbler, which eBird calls a “good-looking and rather primal-looking babbler” (you’ll type of believe this chicken as being saved as a puppy via some cartoonish stone-age folks – “Fred Flintstone and the Huge Scimitar-Babbler”, in all probability?).
In contrast to me, the HBW does now not appear to realize the species a lot, declaring that it’s “hopping about in very ungainly method.”
That is then adopted via a somewhat ungainly description of the species’ vocalization, which I will be able to quote in complete regardless of the danger of being sued:
“Tune a geographically and for my part variable collection of generally 3 quick, syncopated, loud, hole notes, the upper notes candy and sad-sounding, frequently 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 identical; person word variants come with “oh-pu”, “whiu-wao” and moved quickly “wiupupu” and “whipuwup”, and many others. Famous additionally as a easy, low, throaty “tyonk-tyonk-tyonk”, the notes similar; a duetted “gul-díyá, gup”; “gru-grugyúp”, every now and then blended with “gru-grugwééyu”; a low “greo-greo, hwéeo-wup-wup”; “wulchéwpit” (one chicken) after which “wildéwdit” (different chicken), the second one rather thinner and better; “gu-gu-gruu, kúú”, remaining be aware (via 2d chicken) stage and bell-like. Name in agitation a noisy, 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 rather slower close to finish; additionally a brief, laborious “puh”.”
Don’t melancholy for those who favor smaller Scimitar-Babblers – evolution has advanced a number of choices for you. Just like the Purple-billed Scimitar-Babbler …
… and the Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler.
Would you employ extra sunscreen lotion when going up a mountain than when staying at sea stage? That will be smart, I suppose – and so evolution has taught the Rufous-capped Babbler to do the similar.
It seems that, the plumage of Rufous-capped Babblers occupying montane habitats had upper UV-reflectance and brightness than that of lowland birds, comparable to the upper UV depth in montane than lowland background gentle environments.
A rather extra readable account of this phenomenon can also be discovered right here.
The Gray-throated Babbler isn’t in particular shy and thus reasonably simple to take pictures of.
While the Streaked Wren-babbler is without doubt one of the chicken species that make grown-up chicken photographers cry.
Probably at once 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 via dense forests”.
The HBW helpfully provides that the chicken isn’t present in massive flocks – despite the fact that they put it a little bit in a different way: ” Most often discovered by myself, in pairs, or in small circle of relatives events.”
The web page www.jwcpheasants.com turns out to endorse polygamy for this species regardless of this being unlawful in america for different animals akin to people. The web site states that during captivity, “two hens can also be paired with one male.”
Having recovered from studying Tolkien, eBird is a little bit much less mysterious in regards to the Rufous-throated Partridge: “A lovely little gamebird of foothill and highland forests … Brightly-colored, even for a partridge”.
Like people, it’s “it appears monogamous” (HBW), which to me sounds a little bit in doubt.
The Silver Pheasant turns out a little bit very similar to standard Chinese language (and in contrast to me) in liking noise and disturbance (I’m penning this all the way through Chinese language New Yr, a duration in time when the unusual obsession of the Chinese language with noisy fireworks is especially obtrusive).
A minimum of in Patagonia, the place this species has been offered: “The Silver Pheasant used a lot more continuously spaces with a top stage of disturbance, suggesting that the presence of disturbed habitats may facilitate status quo and unfold of this species in Patagonia.” (supply). A weirdo, that chicken – who likes folks?
However, it sort of feels they thrive in captivity – see right here for main points.
eBird calls the Hill Blue Flycatcher a “medium-sized complicated flycatcher”, which in itself is a little bit complicated as there is not any transparent rationale for calling the species complicated.
What could be complicated is the clinical species title whitei as there are seven other 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 vintage. As this e book was once revealed in 1913, it’s now freely to be had on-line and you’ll learn sentences akin to “The Burman has no head, and succumbs without delay to a relatively small amount of liquor” with out violating any copyright regulations.
Then again, stated e book handiest comprises the phrase “chicken” 4 occasions, two times now not even which means actual birds (“mechanical making a song birds”, “an extraordinary chicken” regarding Burmese officers who don’t seem to be corrupt), and two times in a somewhat peripheral manner (“he shot birds at the wing”, “the intake of flesh of birds”), which makes naming a chicken species after him a weird and wonderful selection.
The Light Blue Flycatcher isn’t in particular uniformly coloured, regardless of its clinical title unicolor.
To cite eBird: “Male is light blue general with a light grey abdominal”
You’ll be able to discover a adorable little statement on slumbering Not unusual Tailorbirds right here.
The observer notes that the tailorbirds normally have been slumbering peacefully on his balcony however “now not when I used to be gazing positive films that concerned fierce predators (horror film for the tailorbirds). I as soon as watched “Twilight: New Moon” on my laptop and all at once the tailorbirds awoke and chirped, hopped round in pressure till I realised that they will have to have assumed that the werewolf within the display that have been designed to appear to be actual wolfs as a risk. I reduced the amount and after some time they were given used to it and slowly went again to sleep.”
So, lesson realized: tailorbirds don’t admire horror films.
In Gray-backed Shrikes (a minimum of the ones breeding at the Tibetan plateau), the eggs laid all the way through one breeding strive get higher with time – probably an try to a minimum of partially triumph over the disadvantages the remaining chick faces (supply). That is against this to different species during which the later chicks frequently basically function meals for the sooner ones.
Curious about doing analysis at the Orange-bellied Leafbird?
Here’s what the HBW lists as priorities for long term analysis:
“The taxonomic id of Orange-bellied Leafbird in lots of spaces stay to be investigated. The inhabitants in south-central Vietnam, together with Da Lat Plateau, is provisionally integrated in C. h. melliana however may constitute an undescribed subspecies. There also are reviews of people with intermediate traits between the very other taxa C. h. hardwickii and C. h. melliana from alleged touch zone(s) in northern Laos and perhaps south-western China. Hill levels in jap Myanmar and western Thailand also are suspected to be the intergradation zone between C. h. hardwickii and C. h. malayana, albeit broadly assigned the previous, as small-sized people akin to natural C. h. malayana were amassed. Extra genetic analysis and thorough phenotypic exam on populations in those spaces are required.”
Or higher stick with your present task as a door-to-door salesclerk for vacuum cleaners.
The species could also be looked for native intake in Meghalaya (India), in line with the HBW.
Personally, eBird is a little bit unfair to the feminine Rufous-bellied Niltava.
The web site says “the male is brilliantly coloured …
… whilst the feminine is drab brown general”
I believe the tiny white and bluish bits of the feminine are reasonably sexy – perhaps eBird will have to admire refined good looks a little bit extra.
However, the HBW turns out to forget about the feminine altogether, simply calling the species a “massive, stocky and brightly coloured flycatcher”.