The Frequent Inexperienced Magpie appears something however frequent. (I swear I got here up with this sentence myself however later noticed that Australian Geographic has a webpage titled “The frequent inexperienced magpie is something however”, which robs me of my illusions of being an unique thinker).
In response to the eBird description, it’s the whole lot I’m not: a “neon-colored, noisy, extremely social hen”. Shudder to suppose (not the hen half although).
Subsequent, this put up has an extended 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 accessible, generally 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.
Curiously, these juveniles look extra just like one other species, the Pale-billed Parrotbill, than the grownup babblers – they usually generally are a part of the identical flock. An attention-grabbing paper discusses the visible convergence of species in multi-species flocks whereas an online web page has a hanging photograph displaying the similarity of two species, one a cutia and one a sibia (photograph by Wenyi Zhou, along 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 scale back their threat of predation, as predators discover it tougher to concentrate on and isolate a single goal. My different principle is that the birds are simply following vogue, imitating whoever is the good. It was like that once I went to high school, why wouldn’t it work for birds …
For those who noticed a paper titled “Street Crossing by Birds in a Tropical Forest in Northern Vietnam”, would you – like me – additionally instantly visualize cute tiny site 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 research doesn’t truly contain tiny site 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 right here.)
These roads are a lot much less of a hindrance for the Pin-striped Tit-babbler, a mid-story hen.
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 superb track by Pulp: “The issue along with your brother / he’s all the time sleeping along with your mom”).
In response to Wikipedia, “scimitar babblers are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed land birds with comfortable fluffy plumage. They’ve robust 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 under. Many have hanging head patterns, with a broad black band by way of the attention, bordered with white above and under. Most scimitar babblers are jungle species, tough to watch within the dense vegetation they like, however like different babblers, these are noisy birds …”
My private favourite is the Massive Scimitar-Babbler, which eBird calls a “good-looking and barely primal-looking babbler” (you possibly can kind of think about this hen as being saved as a pet by some cartoonish stone-age individuals – “Fred Flintstone and the Massive 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 reasonably ungainly description of the species’ vocalization, which I’ll quote in full regardless of the danger of being sued:
“Tune a geographically and individually variable sequence of normally 3 quick, 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 forth. Famous additionally as a easy, low, throaty “tyonk-tyonk-tyonk”, the notes an identical; a duetted “gul-díyá, gup”; “gru-grugyúp”, generally combined with “gru-grugwééyu”; a low “greo-greo, hwéeo-wup-wup”; “wulchéwpit” (one hen) after which “wildéwdit” (different hen), the second barely thinner and better; “gu-gu-gruu, kúú”, final word (by second hen) 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 if you happen to choose smaller Scimitar-Babblers – evolution has developed a number of options for you. Just like the Purple-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 larger UV-reflectance and brightness than that of lowland birds, equivalent to the upper UV depth in montane than lowland background gentle environments.
A barely extra readable account of this phenomenon could be discovered right here.
The Gray-throated Babbler will not be notably shy and thus pretty straightforward to take images of.
Whereas the Streaked Wren-babbler is likely one of the hen species that make grown-up hen photographers cry.
Presumably instantly 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 hen isn’t present in massive flocks – although they put it a bit otherwise: ” Normally 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 corresponding to people. The location 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 stupendous 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 scripting this throughout Chinese language New Yr, a interval in time when the bizarre obsession of the Chinese language with noisy fireworks is especially apparent).
At the least in Patagonia, the place this species has been launched: “The Silver Pheasant used rather more steadily areas with a excessive stage of disturbance, suggesting that the presence of disturbed habitats may facilitate institution and unfold of this species in Patagonia.” (supply). A weirdo, that hen – who likes individuals?
Then once more, it appears they thrive in captivity – see right 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 a clear rationale for calling the species complicated.
What is perhaps complicated is the scientific species title whitei as there are seven completely different individuals named White who all gave names to birds.
On this case, the proper one (in response to 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 traditional. As this e-book was revealed in 1913, it’s now freely accessible on-line and you may learn sentences corresponding to “The Burman has no head, and succumbs without delay to a relatively small amount of liquor” with out violating any copyright legal guidelines.
Nonetheless, stated e-book solely incorporates the phrase “hen” 4 occasions, twice not even that means actual birds (“mechanical singing birds”, “a uncommon hen” referring to Burmese officers who aren’t corrupt), and twice in a reasonably peripheral approach (“he shot birds on the wing”, “the consumption of flesh of birds”), which makes naming a hen species after him an odd selection.
The Pale Blue Flycatcher will not be notably uniformly coloured, regardless of its scientific title unicolor.
To cite eBird: “Male is pale blue total with a pale grey stomach”
You could find a cute little commentary on sleeping Frequent Tailorbirds right here.
The observer notes that the tailorbirds typically had been sleeping peacefully on his balcony however “not once I was watching sure films that concerned fierce predators (horror film for the tailorbirds). I as soon as watched “Twilight: New Moon” on my laptop and abruptly the tailorbirds awoke and chirped, hopped round in stress till I realised that they should have assumed that the werewolf within the present that had been designed to seem like actual wolfs as a risk. I lowered the amount and after some time they obtained used to it and slowly went again to sleep.”
So, lesson discovered: tailorbirds don’t respect horror films.
In Gray-backed Shrikes (at the least these breeding on the Tibetan plateau), the eggs laid throughout one breeding try get bigger with time – presumably an try to at the least partly overcome the disadvantages the final chick faces (supply). That is in distinction to different species by which the later chicks typically primarily function meals for the sooner ones.
Fascinated about doing analysis on the Orange-bellied Leafbird?
Here’s what the HBW lists as priorities for future analysis:
“The taxonomic id 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 stories 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 probably south-western China. Hill ranges in jap Myanmar and western Thailand are additionally suspected to be the intergradation zone between C. h. hardwickii and C. h. malayana, albeit extensively 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 keep on with your present job as a door-to-door salesperson for vacuum cleaners.
The species can also be hunted for native consumption in Meghalaya (India), in response to the HBW.
For my part, eBird is a bit unfair to the feminine Rufous-bellied Niltava.
The location says “the male is brilliantly coloured …
… whereas the feminine is drab brown total”
I believe the tiny white and bluish bits of the feminine are fairly engaging – possibly eBird ought to respect delicate 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”.