Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Half 2)

The Widespread Inexperienced Magpie appears something however widespread. (I swear I got here up with this sentence myself however later noticed that Australian Geographic has a webpage titled “The widespread inexperienced magpie is something however”, which robs me of my illusions of being an authentic thinker).

In accordance with the eBird description, it’s all the things I’m not: a “neon-colored, noisy, extremely social chook”. Shudder to suppose (not the chook half although).

Subsequent, this publish has a protracted part on babblers, a really ill-defined class of birds. However a few of them look fairly attention-grabbing.

If the White-crested Laughingthrush will not be obtainable, typically White-hooded Babblers take their place in Wham! movies (see Birding Hongbenghe half 1 to grasp this obscure and never superb joke).

Sadly, juvenile White-hooded Babblers don’t look cool and hedonistic sufficient but, so they’re normally excluded from these movies.

Apparently, these juveniles look extra just like one other species, the Pale-billed Parrotbill, than the grownup babblers – they usually typically are a part of the identical flock. An interesting paper discusses the visible convergence of species in multi-species flocks whereas a web page has a placing photograph displaying the similarity of two species, one a cutia and one a sibia (photograph by Wenyi Zhou, together with his permission).

Right here is the Sibia – the Rufuous-backed Sibia, to be particular – as seen at Hongbenghe.

One proposed rationalization by the researchers for this phenomenon is that similar-looking birds cut back their threat of predation, as predators discover it tougher to concentrate on and isolate a single goal. My different concept is that the birds are simply following trend, imitating whoever is the best. It was like that after I went to highschool, why wouldn’t it work for birds …

In the event you noticed a paper titled “Highway Crossing by Birds in a Tropical Forest in Northern Vietnam”, would you – like me – additionally instantly visualize cute tiny visitors lights and small birds lining up and ready in entrance of them? Then we’re each hopeless … Anyway, the paper assessments whether or not small roads in a forest are a hindrance to birds – are they reluctant to cross? (not due to the ready time because the examine doesn’t really contain tiny visitors lights, sadly). They discovered that for understory birds just like the Puff-throated Babbler, these roads are certainly a hindrance.

(If you wish to see how this species builds its nest, see here.)

These roads are a lot much less of a hindrance for the Pin-striped Tit-babbler, a mid-story chook.

That species is apparently liable to extinction in Singapore – not as a result of it’s so uncommon, however as a result of its genetic variety is so low. Consider that earlier than sleeping along with your sister.

(Beginning lyrics of “Razzmatazz”, a wonderful music by Pulp: “The issue along with your brother / he’s all the time sleeping along with your mom”).

In accordance with Wikipedia, “scimitar babblers are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed land birds with smooth fluffy plumage. They’ve sturdy legs and are fairly terrestrial. … [They] have lengthy, downward-curved payments, used to work by way of the leaf litter … They’re usually lengthy tailed, darkish brown above, and white or orange-brown beneath. Many have placing head patterns, with a broad black band by way of the attention, bordered with white above and beneath. Most scimitar babblers are jungle species, troublesome to look at within the dense vegetation they like, however like different babblers, these are noisy birds …”

My private favourite is the Giant Scimitar-Babbler, which eBird calls a “good-looking and barely primal-looking babbler” (you may kind of think about this chook as being stored as a pet by some cartoonish stone-age folks – “Fred Flintstone and the Giant Scimitar-Babbler”, maybe?).

In contrast to me, the HBW doesn’t appear to understand the species a lot, stating that it’s “hopping about in very ungainly method.”

That is then adopted by a slightly ungainly description of the species’ vocalization, which I’ll quote in full regardless of the chance of being sued:

“Track a geographically and individually variable collection of normally 3 brief, syncopated, loud, hole notes, the upper notes candy and sad-sounding, typically 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 related; particular person phrase variants embrace “oh-pu”, “whiu-wao” and hurried “wiupupu” and “whipuwup”, and so on. Famous additionally as a easy, low, throaty “tyonk-tyonk-tyonk”, the notes equivalent; a duetted “gul-díyá, gup”; “gru-grugyúp”, typically blended with “gru-grugwééyu”; a low “greo-greo, hwéeo-wup-wup”; “wulchéwpit” (one chook) after which “wildéwdit” (different chook), the second barely thinner and better; “gu-gu-gruu, kúú”, final notice (by second chook) stage and bell-like. Name in agitation a loud, 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 barely slower close to finish; additionally a brief, exhausting “puh”.”

Don’t despair for those who desire smaller Scimitar-Babblers – evolution has developed a number of alternate options for you. Just like the Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler …

… and the Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler.

Would you utilize extra sunscreen lotion when going up a mountain than when staying at sea stage? That might be clever, I assume – and so evolution has taught the Rufous-capped Babbler to do the identical.

Apparently, the plumage of Rufous-capped Babblers occupying montane habitats had increased UV-reflectance and brightness than that of lowland birds, equivalent to the upper UV depth in montane than lowland background gentle environments (notice: the pictures present Buff-chested Babbler, which I solely realized belatedly).

A barely extra readable account of this phenomenon could be discovered here.

The Gray-throated Babbler will not be significantly shy and thus pretty simple to take pictures of.

Whereas the Streaked Wren-babbler is among the chook species that make grown-up chook photographers cry.

Presumably immediately 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 by way of dense forests”.

The HBW helpfully provides that the chook is never present in massive flocks – although they put it a bit in another way: ” Often discovered alone, in pairs, or in small household events.”

The web site www.jwcpheasants.com appears to endorse polygamy for this species regardless of this being unlawful within the USA for different animals akin to people. The positioning states that in captivity, “two hens could be paired with one male.”

Having recovered from studying Tolkien, eBird is a bit much less mysterious concerning the Rufous-throated Partridge: “A fantastic little gamebird of foothill and highland forests … Brightly-colored, even for a partridge”.

Like people, it’s “apparently monogamous” (HBW), which to me sounds a bit uncertain.

The Silver Pheasant appears a bit just like typical Chinese language (and in contrast to me) in liking noise and disturbance (I’m penning this throughout Chinese language New 12 months, a interval in time when the bizarre obsession of the Chinese language with noisy fireworks is especially apparent).

Not less than in Patagonia, the place this species has been launched: “The Silver Pheasant used way more regularly areas with a excessive stage of disturbance, suggesting that the presence of disturbed habitats might facilitate institution and unfold of this species in Patagonia.” (source). A weirdo, that chook – who likes folks?

Then once more, it appears they thrive in captivity – see here for particulars.

eBird calls the Hill Blue Flycatcher a “medium-sized complicated flycatcher”, which in itself is a bit complicated as there isn’t any clear rationale for calling the species complicated.

What is perhaps complicated is the scientific species identify whitei as there are seven completely different 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 basic. As this e book was revealed in 1913, it’s now freely available online 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 legal guidelines.

Nevertheless, mentioned e book solely accommodates the phrase “chook” 4 instances, twice not even that means actual birds (“mechanical singing birds”, “a uncommon chook” referring to Burmese officers who usually are not corrupt), and twice in a slightly peripheral manner (“he shot birds on the wing”, “the consumption of flesh of birds”), which makes naming a chook species after him a wierd selection.

The Pale Blue Flycatcher will not be significantly uniformly coloured, regardless of its scientific identify unicolor.

To cite eBird: “Male is pale blue general with a pale grey stomach”

Yow will discover a cute little remark on sleeping Widespread Tailorbirds here. (notice: the photograph exhibits Darkish-necked Tailorbird).

The observer notes that the tailorbirds usually have been sleeping peacefully on his balcony however “not after I was watching sure motion pictures that concerned fierce predators (horror film for the tailorbirds). I as soon as watched “Twilight: New Moon” on my pc and all of a sudden the tailorbirds wakened and chirped, hopped round in stress till I realised that they should have assumed that the werewolf within the present that have been designed to appear like actual wolfs as a risk. I lowered the quantity and after some time they obtained used to it and slowly went again to sleep.”

So, lesson discovered: tailorbirds don’t recognize horror motion pictures.

In Gray-backed Shrikes (at the very least these breeding on the Tibetan plateau), the eggs laid throughout one breeding try get bigger with time – presumably an try and at the very least partly overcome the disadvantages the final chick faces (source). That is in distinction to different species during which the later chicks typically primarily function meals for the sooner ones.

All in favour of doing analysis on the Orange-bellied Leafbird?

Here’s what the HBW lists as priorities for future analysis:

“The taxonomic identification of Orange-bellied Leafbird in lots of areas stay to be investigated. The inhabitants in south-central Vietnam, together with Da Lat Plateau, is provisionally included in C. h. melliana however would possibly characterize an undescribed subspecies. There are additionally studies of people with intermediate traits between the very completely different taxa C. h. hardwickii and C. h. melliana from alleged contact zone(s) in northern Laos and presumably south-western China. Hill ranges in japanese Myanmar and western Thailand are additionally suspected to be the intergradation zone between C. h. hardwickii and C. h. malayana, albeit broadly assigned the previous, as small-sized people resembling pure C. h. malayana had been collected. Extra genetic analysis and thorough phenotypic examination on populations in these areas are required.”

Or higher follow your present job as a door-to-door salesperson for vacuum cleaners.

The species can be hunted for native consumption in Meghalaya (India), in line with the HBW.

For my part, eBird is a bit unfair to the feminine Rufous-bellied Niltava.

The positioning says “the male is brilliantly coloured …

… whereas the feminine is drab brown general”

I believe the tiny white and bluish bits of the feminine are fairly engaging – possibly eBird ought to recognize refined magnificence a bit extra.

Then once more, the HBW appears to disregard the feminine altogether, simply calling the species a “massive, stocky and brightly coloured flycatcher”.