Occasionally I simply need to hug eBird, or extra particularly, whoever writes the fast species descriptions (although I’m really not the standard hugging more or less particular person, believe me in this). Corresponding to in relation to the Rufous-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher, which eBird describes as a “tiny, unbelievably lovely kingfisher: a luminous ball of red, orange, yellow, and ranging quantities of blue and crimson”.
Admittedly, when pondering of hugging this particular person, I’m hoping this can be a lovely younger feminine pupil slightly than an previous beer-bellied male ornithologist …
Collared Kingfishers it sounds as if do reasonably smartly in palm oil plantations – no surprise as they clearly don’t thoughts beautiful weird-looking issues.
When you ever get invited to lunch by way of Collared Kingfishers, you could due to this fact need to moderately imagine whether or not to just accept. The similar applies when being invited by way of some Cantonese other people.
The Simple Sunbird is the obvious vanilla model of the differently frequently very colourful circle of relatives (adequate, an overly low-budget form of shaggy dog story).
Including insult to damage, eBird disparagingly characterizes it as “extraordinarily undeniable”.
However it’s true – the species has to stand the truth that it’s a lot, a lot plainer than every other members of the family such because the Ruby-cheeked Sunbird.
One paper means that the Ruby-cheeked Sunbird essentially feeds on bugs slightly than on nectar, the extra not unusual meals of sunbirds. On the other hand, the HBW lists nectar amongst its meals.
The burden indicated for each sexes within the HBW (“male 8·2–9·1 g, feminine 8·6 g”) means that the feminine birds keep an eye on their weight a lot more strictly, whilst the men every so often – perhaps after gazing a football fit whilst ingesting beer and consuming fatty issues – acquire weight which they lose once more on every occasion the loss of blank kitchen apparatus helps to keep them from making ready foods.
There are about 50 other species of flowerpeckers globally. Quite puzzlingly, Wikipedia states that they’re frequently boring in colour, even though the web page then admits that during a number of species the men have brightly patterned plumage. That characterization works reasonably smartly for the Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker …
… for which the HBW certainly states that “feminine is duller than male” …
… however much less so for the not-very-dull-in colour Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker (for which each sexes glance identical).
“Boring, me?”
In case you have ever been to Singapore, you’re going to know that about half of the puts there are named after Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781 – 1826). For just right measure, some animals within the close to neighborhood had been additionally named after him, akin to Raffles’s Malkoha.
You already know there’s most likely some evil backstory if Wikipedia talks of a “complicated” legacy of Raffles – additional detailing that “he used to be in the long run an imperialist reaping benefits on the expense of the indigenous peoples”. So, I assume that is every other fowl title that are supposed to be modified sooner or later.
There’s no British explorer named Sir John Noticed (1789 – 1856), so the title of the Noticed Fantail will most probably stay unchanged.
Some of the scarier moments of the keep at Tabin used to be when two Asian Shiny Starlings attempted to hypnotize me with their piercing purple eyes. I escaped, slightly.
Against this, the Little Spiderhunter is frightening for spiders handiest, now not for other people.
To me, the Whiskered Treeswift seems slightly adore it is dressed in some more or less generic superhero dress. I assume it’s those facial stripes. If those are taken off, the species seems similar to Clark Kent.
eBird characterizes it as “long-tailed and long-winged, like a go between a swift and a swallow” – most likely impressed by way of the Genus title Semiprocne (“half-swallow”).
The Crested Serpent-eagle isn’t a vulture, however that doesn’t stay me from bringing up a contemporary Economist article right here, “The surprising dying of Indian vultures killed 1000’s of other people”. And whilst this text is in the back of a paywall, the unique analysis paper isn’t. It describes how, when a veterinary drug utilized in India killed the majority of Indian vultures, the human demise price in affected places greater by way of about 4% because the vultures had been now not round to feed on animal carcasses and the sanitation thus worsened considerably.
After all, there will have to be a photograph of a vulture right here, now not of a Crested Serpent-eagle.
Whilst this used to be a just right matter to spotlight within the Economist, a contemporary chief on nationalism in the similar magazine used to be much less helpful. In that chief, it’s mentioned that “Nationalism can also be sure or unfavourable” – one thing I doubt very a lot. They quote Yascha Mounk: “At its highest, it [nationalism] can encourage a white Christian residing in rural Tennessee to really feel particular worry for a Hispanic atheist residing in Los Angeles—and vice versa.” It is extremely laborious for me to look how a rural Tennessean having a different worry for the Hispanic atheist residing in Los Angeles however now not for one residing in Buenos Aires or Tokyo is usually a power of excellent. Isn’t that what nationalism is all about? I care about you as a result of you might have the similar passport? Us in opposition to them?
Good enough, Kai, no person is in point of fact very on your ideas on political problems – may just you get again to the subject of birds?
Smartly, sure. Woodpeckers are birds which can be usually common and regarded as reasonably apolitical (with a couple of exceptions, such because the Pileated Woodpecker that took phase within the storming of the capitol on Jan 06, 2021, even though the fowl concerned claims this used to be a false impression).
It appears, any person as soon as made moderately an effort to explain the other plumages of the Orange-backed Woodpecker: the natal down, the juvenile (first elementary) plumage, the formative plumage, the second one elementary plumage, the 3rd elementary plumage, and the definitive elementary plumage.
So, should you ever bring to mind dressing up as an Orange-backed Woodpecker of various ages, keep in mind: it is very important spend some huge cash on costumes.
Whilst the dress birthday celebration an Orange-backed Woodpecker is going thru when rising up feels like amusing, the Latin species title of the Buff-rumped Woodpecker (tristis, “unhappy, gloomy”) does now not.
In a evaluation of Gorman’s e book on woodpeckers, the reviewer (Koenig) suggests a woodpecker giant yr, as he causes that the danger to stumble upon a wave of Buff-rumped Woodpeckers in his (probably North American) yard could be very narrow …
No longer handiest people be afflicted by Harry Potter books. It appears, for the reason that unlock of the Harry Potter collection in Indonesia within the early 2000s the recognition of owls such because the Buffy Fish Owl as pets has greater, resulting in extra birds being stuck within the wild after which offered at native fowl markets.
Even the title of the owls has modified: “While previously owls had been jointly referred to as Burung Hantu (‘Ghost birds’), within the fowl markets they’re now recurrently known as Burung Harry Potter (‘Harry Potter birds’)”. (supply)
Deficient Buffy Fish Owl. It merits much better than being stuck and locked in a cage.
The Brown Boobook seems nearly just like the Northern Boobook passing thru Shanghai on migration. Each are a part of what one paper calls the Brown Hawk Owl complicated – one thing this is a lot much less objectionable than the military-industrial complicated however (no less than to me) now not in point of fact much more attention-grabbing.
The Brown Boobook is sedentary, even though. No likelihood of seeing it in Shanghai, it’s important to come additional south to look it (as I did in this go back and forth).
eBird turns out fairly spooked by way of the species, bringing up its “huge, unsettling yellow eyes”. Possibly the imprecise reminiscence of a nightmare? Confidently, the well being plans of Cornell College come with get right of entry to to a couple psychiatrists …
Like owls, the Higher Inexperienced Leafbird (if that is certainly one) additionally suffers from being captured and offered as a cage fowl – it’s now indexed as Endangered.
Its species title sonnerati is derived from Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814), a French naturalist. His slightly doubtful declare to reputation features a e book describing his go back and forth to New Guinea even though he by no means in fact were given to the mainland house of New Guinea (supply).
The HBW even has knowledge at the value construction of this species: “It’s now one of the vital a lot of species in Indonesian fowl markets. Marketplace costs have tracked call for: in 1987 birds retailed for $ 14, emerging to $ 44 in 2014 and $ 99 in 2016.”
My historical past of taking footage of the Black-naped Monarch isn’t a cheerful one – whilst I’ve observed it a couple of occasions, even in Shanghai, I by no means were given the type of photograph I in point of fact sought after – that of a male with a just right view of the black cranium cap (or zuchetto – I regarded this up) differently worn by way of bishops.
This used to be every other this sort of events – some respectable pictures of a feminine however now not of the required male. Sexism in fowl pictures is alive and in impolite well being, I’m afraid.
Thankfully for the discerning male birder who does now not need to come over as misogynistic, female and male Blue-throated Bee-eaters glance alike. So there is not any wish to particularly search for men.
Apparently, the Latin species title viridis (“inexperienced”) is a lot more suitable for the juvenile fowl than for the one partially inexperienced grownup.
Existence as a juvenile Blue-throated Bee-eater is the standard hell that nature supplies for lots of creatures: “Blue-throated bee-eaters apply asynchronous brooding, because of this that chicks hatch at other occasions, frequently pairing with siblicide. Older chicks don’t seem to be handiest higher and in a position to resist higher wounds from different siblings, but additionally be capable to monopolize the meals they’re fed by way of oldsters.” (supply)
Some other paper is much more easy: “Sibling festival in blue-throated bee-eaters invariably ended in nest fatalities, that have been triggered by way of sibling assaults with an it sounds as if distinctive, however developmentally brief, hook on the tip of the higher mandible.”
Whole with gory main points recorded in clinical element: “Collection of peck wounds and scars on blue-throated bee-eater chicks in terms of the sum of mass variations between each and every chick and its higher siblings (referred to as the ‘mass downside’) …” Or provide an explanation for this to the more youthful one in all a couple of siblings: “Mortality frequently starts with smaller and more youthful folks because of the loss of meals and assaults from their higher siblings” … (supply).
On the other hand, in spite of those identified murderous inclinations of Blue-throated Bee-eater chicks [note: Grammarly helpfully suggests replacing Bee-eater with Beef-eater: but no, this is a birding blog, not a cooking show], none of them has ever been accused of homicide in a US courtroom, a lot much less convicted. That makes it even much less justifiable that some other people must bear long courtroom battles simply because they attempted to overthrow election effects. The one clarification I’ve for this unequal remedy is that it will have to be a witch hunt.
If that every one sounds slightly too thrilling to you, why now not have a look at footage of the Brown Fulvetta? Even the most often reasonably sure eBird reviewer admits that “because the title suggests, that is a reasonably uninteresting-looking fulvetta with out flashy distinguishing traits”.
The Brown Fulvetta is indexed as “Close to Threatened”, which is slightly puzzling for the reason that the HBW names a variety of places the place it supposedly is slightly not unusual. My non-public principle is that listers who see this fowl have already forgotten all about it by the point they get round to striking their eBird lists in combination.
Within the “different” segment of this publish protecting the ones unlucky animals that don’t seem to be birds, now we have a tarsier.
And a few different animals.
