Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Half 1)

Hongbenghe is straight on the border to Myanmar – earlier than COVID-19, it was simple sufficient to stroll throughout the border on foot, however now a monstrous lengthy metal and barbed-wire fence separates the 2 international locations. Very interesting to vacationers nostalgic for that iron curtain feeling.

That is the house of the Rusty-naped Pitta, admittedly one of many much less glamorous of the household, significantly the subspecies present in Yunnan, however nonetheless a pleasant sight and nonetheless a pitta.

Provided that in line with the HBW, the species prefers dense main and secondary montane forests, the observe that the hen additionally forages amongst kitchen waste (in the identical HBW entry) appears considerably incongruous.

The scientific species title of the Rusty-naped Pitta oatesi honors  Eugene William Oates (1845-1911), an English civil servant in India and naturalist. He printed a lot of books on birds of India and Burma, making me surprise how laborious all these abroad civil servants actually labored of their day jobs.

It appears this species is shy even by pitta requirements – the HBW calls it a “very shy and secretive pitta, simply ignored” and says that it’s “very uncommon in China (S. Yunnan)”.

Hongbenghe is an efficient place to see a number of laughingthrush species:

The Purple-tailed Laughingthrush, Trochalopteron milnei, is known as after a recent of Mr. Oates, the French professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835 – 1900). His obituary was printed in Nature.

It’s a bit worrying that whereas the Basel Zoo is listed by Google as having a page on the Purple-tailed Laughingthrush, that web page itself doesn’t appear to exist anymore, and the species just isn’t listed among the many inhabitants of the aviary of the zoo. Fairly presumably, this laughingthrush is now domestically extinct in Switzerland or at the least in Basel.

And naturally, this entry on the Purple-tailed Laughingthrush wouldn’t be full with out mentioning a paper that presumably no person will ever learn: “The whole mitochondrial genome of red-tailed laughingthrush ( Garrulax milnei )”. As common, there are numerous authors (8 on this case), and all appear to be Chinese language (additionally as common). I ponder why.

The White-crested Laughingthrush seems prefer it might simply play a cameo position in a Wham! video.

(Be aware to these readers who have no idea Wham!: Congratulations, you’re a lot youthful than me and bought spared quite a lot of really terrible music).

This laughingthrush is a cooperative breeder – nestlings are fed by all members of a gaggle, typically 6-12 (not simply 2 as in Wham!):

“A feminine could share a nest with one other, and three or extra adults could take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks.” (source).

Survival charges of chicks improve when there are helpers current – and if in captivity this isn’t an possibility, people can even take the place of helpers (source).

In Singapore, the White-crested Laughingthrush is widespread regardless of not being native and has some traits of an invasive species (source).

The scientific title of the Gray-sided Laughingthrush, caerulatus (darkish blue), makes rather more sense to me than the widespread title.

Surprisingly, the often pretty correct eBird description additionally fails to say the attractive blue across the eyes of the species: “Darkish rufous above and grayish-white beneath, with a silver ear patch, vivid white throat, and a black patch across the eye.”

Much more surprisingly, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has a web page for this species – but it surely comprises completely no info.

The Larger Necklaced Laughingthrush used to react to being known as Garrulax pectoralis however now solely comes if you happen to name it Pterorhinus pectoralis after some DNA studies and the resurrection of the previous genus Pterorhinus. I’m penning this largely as a result of I just like the bizarre associations with the time period “resurrecting a genus” – it has one thing about Jesus on the cross to it. Although it often takes longer than 3 days, I assume.

This additionally means it’s now not carefully associated to the Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush (not proven), which remained in Garrulax. Little doubt, the Lesser NLT can be relieved to not be bossed round by its erstwhile larger member of the family anymore.

The Scarlet-faced Liocichla (Liocichla ripponi) is yet one more hen named after some forgotten ornithologist who bought despatched to India to do empire work and as an alternative largely 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 the HBW which calls it a “pretty small babbler, largely plain brown”.

Sadly, the Black-throated Laughingthrush is affected by the hen commerce, and a conservation society is looking for its inclusion within the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Under is a citation straight from this paper by the Monitor Conservation Analysis Society:

“Commerce information from the vary international locations of Thailand and Vietnam and from Indonesia and USA, each non-range international locations, revealed 10,841 Black-throated Laughingthrushes in commerce, throughout 762 visits to 51 markets between 1966 and 2019. The bulk (63%) had been recorded in places exterior the species’ vary. Fascinating too was that the costs had been highest within the USA and lowest in Thailand, and that costs in Indonesia indicated excessive demand and growing shortage.”

The Black-breasted Thrush has the considerably misogynistic scientific title dissimilis – why misogynistic? (Rhetorical query, I don’t anticipate a solution from you).

Apparently, the dissimilis (“in contrast to, completely different”) refers back to the distinction between the male and the feminine of the species.

And within the HBW, Edward Blyth is quoted as stating that he lastly noticed “a male, which, as I all alongside suspected, proved to be clad in not fairly so homely a garb as his mate. The male is, certainly, quite a good-looking Thrush.”

No such variations within the Blue Whistling Thrush, although the HBW nonetheless states that “Feminine is comparable however duller”, which refers back to the shade quite than the IQ of the hen (I hope).

The HBW entry additionally has a pleasant instance for an ornithologist saying the phrase “bullshit” with out utilizing any swearwords: “Race flavirostris [a subspecies] has been thought-about presumably to benefit full species standing, however foundation for such a separation unclear”.

At Hongbenghe, some Blue Rock Thrushes apparently undergo from delusions of grandeur.

Sure, I do know it’s getting a bit boring, however the scientific species title of the Rufous-headed Parrotbill, bakeri, honors yet one more British ornithologist, Edward Charles Stuart Baker (1864-1944).

Wikipedia studies that he “was a wonderful tennis participant and an enthusiastic large sport hunter. He misplaced his left arm to a panther …, was tossed by a gaur [an Indian bison] and trampled by an Indian rhinoceros throughout numerous searching expeditions”.

He may additionally have been a little bit of a fraud, in line with Wikipedia: “A number of the nest and eggs in his assortment have been thought-about as of doubtful provenance and there are ideas that he artificially made up a few of the clutches. Some like Charles Vaurie have thought-about it so unreliable that they even prompt the destruction of his egg assortment.”

Effectively, at the least he was not concerned within the slave commerce.

The Pale-billed Parrotbill seems considerably comparable, and I solely bought unhealthy pictures of it.

However the black eyebrow additionally highlighted in its scientific title of atrosuperciliaris (“black eyebrowed”) differentiates it from the earlier species.

Why anybody would need to title a hen species – on this case, the Rusty-fronted Barwing – after a paleontologist is past me, but it surely occurred.

The poor species has the scientific title egertoni, after Sir Philip de Malpas Gray-Egerton (1806-1881), who was not solely a paleontologist but in addition a conservative politician (says Wikipedia, not me).

Most of us in some unspecified time in the future in time have puzzled in regards to the intestine microbiota of Silver-eared Mesias. Particularly, we’re all significantly within the microbiota of birds residing in a mining space.

Thankfully, some individuals don’t simply take into consideration this concern however act. The result’s a recent paper titled “Comparability of intestine microbiota between immigrant and native populations of the Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris) residing in mining space”.

This Streaked Spiderhunter gave the impression to be obsessive about cleanliness – the German phrase could be “Waschzwang”, which in English is one thing like “washing compulsion”.

Why that? One paper could present a proof: “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 prognosis and world guidelines to the genus”.

I might additionally take a number of showers if I had feather mites.

Or possibly it simply enjoys taking showers.

And sure, just like the lengthy novels of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the prolonged title of the paper comes from a Russian scientist.

Lastly, a number of species simply as pictures, with none annoying info (that is the excuse – in actuality, I’m simply uninterested in trying to find info):

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch …

…. White-tailed Robin …

…. and White-throated Fantail.