It is more or less uncommon to look a Fairy Pitta throughout Shanghai’s spring migration as the ones passing via are all adults quite than green chicks, and they’re in a hurry attending to their breeding grounds – however I used to be fortunate.
The Fairy Pitta is indexed as Prone, with the HBW that the species is “uncommon; international inhabitants most likely no various thousand people”.
Whilst the sexes are alike, my wager is that the Fairy Pitta within the photograph is a male given its early arrival date in Shanghai.
For as soon as, the Latin species identify nympha suits smartly – “a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a gorgeous maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or different places” (Oxford Languages).
Similar to a mom slicing spaghetti into small items earlier than feeding her child, Fairy Pittas minimize mealworms into small items earlier than feeding them to their more youthful chicks – which led to a analysis paper with the fairly grandiose identify “Sundering of earthworms via the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha): an unexplored process of prey preparation for brood provisioning via avian vermivores”. Why slicing mealworms into items is known as a technique is a little of a thriller to me, however then I’m really not an ornithologist.
And the way do Fairy Pittas get injured and most likely die? One find out about in Korea discovered that 37% of accidents and deaths have been brought about via predation via herbal enemies, every other 37% (a worryingly prime quantity) via window moves, 10% via site visitors injuries, 7% every via flooding and dehydration, and three% via human disturbance.
The Huge-billed Crow (video) is without doubt one of the herbal enemies – within the find out about above, it predated 19 eggs from 4 pitta nests. This will have to now not be an issue in Shanghai because the pitta has now not been reported to reproduce right here.
Is it value a systematic paper if a Huge-billed Crow eats a fish? Smartly, sure, in case you word it as whether it is, comparable to in this paper titled “Marine and terrestrial meals chain hyperlinks”.
In every other paper, Huge-billed Crows in Japan have been made to hear both the Eastern language or the Dutch language. It kind of feels they may be able to make some difference between the 2: “The crows confirmed considerably extra responses to the Dutch than to the Eastern, which implies that they discriminate two languages with unique linguistic options and that they may also be extra aware of an unfamiliar language, Dutch, in comparison to a well-recognized one, Eastern.”
Swinhoe’s Minivet was once up to now labeled as Close to Threatened however is now indexed as Least Fear – a downgrade, or is it an improve in point of fact?
The HBW has comprehensively not anything on its breeding: “Breeding – No Knowledge”. I suppose birds don’t seem to be their major focal point.
I believe the photograph displays a male hen, as positive portions of the pinnacle appear extra black than gray.
The Asian Koel is a parasitic cuckoo that isn’t quite common in Shanghai. Other from many different parasitic cuckoos, the chick usually does now not kill all its nest buddies, although one or two of them would possibly die from hunger. I suppose the hosts (which come with the Donald Trump of the hen international, the Lengthy-tailed Shrike) need to be thankful, type of.
The male Asian Koel has a quite unique name which for me is sort of the sound of Singapore. In fact, what’s proven right here (and within the video) is a feminine – more or less ordinary for this weblog. Please state your dismay and sadness obviously within the feedback phase.
Two researchers from Pakistan analyzed the male calls, claiming that “so far, the outline of vocal repertoire of the male Asian Koel has been missing” (which sounds a little not likely to me, in particular for the reason that the HBW has a complete paragraph at the vocalizations of the male, with a quotation going again to 1999) and concluding with the quite preposterous commentary that “Our findings enrich the organic wisdom about vocalizations of the grownup male Asian Koel and supply a basis for long term acoustic tracking of the species”. Perhaps I will have to additionally come with such claims in my posts: “This weblog demanding situations the vanity of world ornithological analysis and thus establishes a company conceptual foundation for additional enlargement of irony and sarcasm within the universe of avian-themed internet entries”.
Web hosting a Commonplace Cuckoo is even worse for the hosts, because the cuckoo chick kills all its nest buddies via kicking out the eggs (it hatches a little earlier than them).
It is a rufous morph Commonplace Cuckoo, this means that it will have to be a feminine. [Correction added on Jun 18, 2023: A friend who is a much better birder than me stated that this is a Lesser Cuckoo, not a Common Cuckoo. I am sure he is right about this].
The Thick-billed Warbler is without doubt one of the major host species for the Commonplace Cuckoo within the center Amur River basin (supply).
Against this to the Oriental Reed Warbler, which is a horrible singer, this warbler sounds rather great. In reality, the Latin species identify is aedon, “nightingale”.
(Helpfully for many who lack nightmares, the HBW explains additional that during Greek mythology, Aedon, the spouse of Zethus, was once become a nightingale when, in making an attempt to homicide the eldest son of her fecund sister Niobe, she killed her personal son Itylus.)
The Lesser Coucal resents the comparability with parasitic cuckoos – it admits that as a fellow cuckoo species, it’s associated with them however takes care to deliver up its chicks by itself. Considered one of them informed me “How would you are feeling being repeatedly when put next with Donald Trump simply since you also are a human?” Just right level, I believe.
The Lesser Coucal has a feature vocalization that may be heard on this video (together with the standard China-typical background noise – China isn’t a quiet position generally).
I used to be a little nervous in regards to the hen within the video however a chum confident me that birds don’t get seasick. I am hoping he’s proper.
I’m wondering what Barn Swallows did earlier than people began construction homes. In puts like Shanghai, there are just about no vertical rocks that might permit the development of nests as proven right here.
Sadly, the home this nest is constructed on is ready to be destroyed – no tenant rights for birds in China, I’m afraid. However no less than for this season, the chicks will have to be good enough.
Thankfully for an unskilled videographer like me, swallow nests permit the seize of motion with no need to transport the digital camera. See the effects right here and right here.
A couple of days later, the chicks have grown larger …
… and discovered how one can use the bathroom (video).
As discussed earlier than, the Blue Rock Thrush advantages from increasingly more portions of Nanhui changing into concrete. Each cloud has its silver lining, stated he despairingly …
(video)
Alternatively, this will likely most likely additionally imply extra other people sooner or later, one thing that is probably not liked via a hen species with the Latin identify of solitarius.
It kind of feels that the Black-crowned Night time Heron is more or less the workhorse (workbird?) of researchers searching for chemical contaminants within the setting. There are papers about Black-crowned Night time Herons and …
… DDE …
… heavy metals (now not of the track kind, although which may be harmful as smartly) …
… hint parts …
… PCBs …
… lead (with the quite unhappy commentary “Nestlings have been euthanized at 15 d of age” – I’m satisfied I’m really not doing this type of analysis) …
… and mercury.
In addition they function in some newbie movies, comparable to this one or that one.
Chinese language Pond Herons glance rather innocuous to you and me however some frogs would most likely have a distinct opinion. If you wish to know why, watch the video – in case you are in a rush, get started at in regards to the 0.40 mark.
This appears to be every other hen that pulls pollution comparable to heavy metals, selenium, and PCBs. Deficient hen.
eBird calls the Chestnut Bulbul an “sexy songbird of forested lowlands and foothills”. The HBW is a little much less certain: “Medium-sized, noisy, conspicuous bulbul”, except you suppose that noisy and conspicuous are positives (I without a doubt don’t).
Getting close to the tip of the put up, some birds which were proven in those posts continuously earlier than, however are too sexy to not display once more – particularly, the Rufous-faced Warbler …
… Black-winged Cuckooshrike …
… Black-naped Oriole …
… Mugimaki Flycatcher (video) …
… Black Drongo …
… Tiger Shrike …
… Hair-crested Drongo …
… Black-winged Stilt (additionally as a video and every other very an identical video) …
… Livestock Egret (additionally as a video and every other very an identical video) …
… and the Siberian Rubythroat.
After all, within the “Different” phase of this put up, the photograph underneath illustrates a big medical step forward. Whilst it was once historically believed that bugs can not learn, the concept the pose taken up via the dragonflies within the photograph may have been struck with out an intimate wisdom of the Kamasutra is quite preposterous.
