Tomohon is a city in North Sulawesi about 30 km south of Manado, town and airport the place birders are most probably to reach. Given the situation of the roads and the upper elevation (700-1000 meters) in comparison with Manado, it takes about one hour to get right here from Manado.
Considered one of its moderately doubtful claims to fame is its market – solely in July 2023, canine and cat meat buying and selling was banned on the market, with merchants on the market agreeing to not promote or slaughter canine and cats.
Nonetheless, the hunt for what’s euphemistically known as “bushmeat” continues. I noticed some individuals within the fields who had simply caught some rats, and the native information talked about his neighbors in his village even searching pittas.
In an article, a neighborhood conservationist describes the grim state of affairs as follows: “Over-exploitation drives the decline of iconic species and their habitats as a result of trying to find the unlawful wildlife commerce. The northern a part of Sulawesi is an unlawful wildlife commerce hub for the area, supplying wildlife to markets throughout Asia and past. Looking for subsistence is frequent round forested areas and contains the gathering of maleo eggs for meals. There’s additionally a thriving bushmeat market for a lot of wildlife species.”
Three birds are the primary targets for visiting birders right here (a honeyeater, a kingfisher, and a pitta) – however among the different species are very attention-grabbing as nicely.
The Sulawesi Myzomela is a near-endemic on Sulawesi, and a member of the honeyeater household – a household principally present in Australia.
It’s thus on the Wallacea aspect of the Wallace line, which Wikipedia defines as follows:
“The Wallace line is a faunal boundary line drawn by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that separates Asia and ‘Wallacea’, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. To the west of the road are discovered organisms associated to Asiatic species; to the east, a mix of species of Asian and Australian origins is current.”
The reason for this borderline is that even when the ocean water ranges have been a lot decrease within the distant previous, there was nonetheless a deep-water hole between the 2 sides of the Wallace line, permitting for species differentiation.
Why anybody would name the Sulawesi Myzomela “yellow-winged” (Myzomela chloroptera is the scientific title) is a thriller to me.
The Sulawesi Myzomela appears fairly plentiful on the Gardenia Nation Inn, a considerably upmarket bungalow lodge in Tomohon – thankfully, there isn’t any want to remain there in a single day as in addition they serve first rate lunch, which (as meals in Indonesian eating places are likely to take fairly some time in comparison with what I’m used to from China) provides you time to search for this and another species.
Two munias may also simply be seen within the gardens of the lodge – the Scaly-breasted Munia …
… which may also be present in Shanghai, although the vary map within the HBW doesn’t appear to pay attention to this truth …
… and the moderately elegant-looking Chestnut Munia, about which eBird is unusually unenthusiastic (“a small, plump reddish brown finch”). Perhaps the reviewer had some private points on the day of writing the entry.
A non-birder buddy with Afghan roots had the next affiliation: “Seems to be like a niqab! Some Muslim ladies appear like this.”
After all, Sooty-headed Bulbuls are additionally simply discovered within the lodge gardens.
One research on their vocalization states “We assume that vocalizations play essential roles within the communication of the three species as a result of we famous these or these sounds in virtually all observations.” Hmm, vocalizations are related for communication, what an attention-grabbing concept.
As these birds aren’t silly (at the least the people evolution has not weeded out over time), their flight initiation distance (i.e., how shut they let a human get to them earlier than flying away) is determined by the native searching strain (supply). As searching strain on Sulawesi usually is pretty excessive, this generally makes it troublesome to see birds correctly, although it doesn’t apply throughout the lodge gardens.
Admittedly, possibly the juveniles look a bit silly.
Whereas rails are troublesome to see in most locations, on Sulawesi (together with the lodge gardens) the Barred Rail is frequent and simple to see.
Its scientific title Gallirallus torquatus (torquatus means collared) doesn’t make an excessive amount of sense for the Sulawesi subspecies – different subspecies have a pink breastband which presumably gave the species its title.
These rails share the gardens with the Isabelline Bush-hen, which is a Sulawesi endemic.
The isabelline in its title (and likewise in its scientific title) apparently signifies the colour (“isabelline-coloured, greyish-yellow”), although I might be hard-pressed to name the colour of the chook greyish-yellow.
One other species one may encounter on the lodge gardens is the Sulawesi Hanging Parrot also referred to as Nice Hanging Parrot (that is regardless of eBird calling it a small parrot – Wikipedia explains that “With a complete size of roughly 15 cm, it’s a small parrot, however the largest species of hanging parrot.”)
Presumably the “stigmatus” (branded) within the scientific title Loriculus stigmatus refers back to the pink throat patch.
The male additionally has a pink crown which the feminine lacks.
The lodge gardens even have at the least three species of sunbirds – the Sahul Sunbird previously often known as Twitter …
… (not likely, it was break up from the Olive-backed Sunbird although) …
… the Crimson Sunbird …
… and the Black Sunbird. I take it as a sign of my spectacular masculinity that of the latter two species, solely females got here to have their picture taken by me.
At Gunung Mahawu, a mountain close to Tomohon, extra species may be discovered – a number of species of White-eyes together with the Black-crowned White-eye …
… and the Pale-bellied White-eye.
The HBW lists 109 totally different species of Zosterops White-eyes, a little bit of an overkill in the event you ask me. It exhibits within the similarity of names – aside from the Black-crowned White-eye, there’s additionally a Black-capped White-eye (not proven). And that doesn’t even embrace White-eyes outdoors of the Zosterops genus such because the Streak-headed White-eye, which I additionally noticed right here. Admittedly, it doesn’t appear like a typical White-eye.
Whereas eBird describes the Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher as a “colourful blue-and-orange flycatcher”, that is much less apparent in my moderately dangerous picture. I’m blissful accountable this on the dangerous mild on that day.
It appears to be a moderately underresearched species – the HBW states “Many features of life historical past, together with habits and breeding, stay primarily undescribed.” Perhaps that is additionally the explanation for the considerably puzzling scientific title Cyornis omissus (omissus means disregarded).
The Snowy-browed Flycatcher got here out higher and was the primary leisure whereas ready for Sulawesi Pitta for a very long time over two days.
A paper by a Malayan birdwatcher describes how the flycatcher used the birder as a feeding station, using the attraction of the sweaty birder for small bugs.
There’s additionally the Citrine Canary-flycatcher.
Whoever gave the species its scientific title Culicicapa helianthea will need to have had a barely poetic streak – helianthea combines the phrases for “solar” and for “blossom, flower”.
As for the Sulawesi Pitta, the primary three makes an attempt to see the chook (of a complete period of about 12 or 13 hours) all resulted in full failure for a chook photographer like me. A lister (which Grammarly tries to vary to “A-lister” as it’s apparently not accustomed to birder-specific phrases) might need discovered comfort in the truth that I heard the decision of the chook every time – however that solely meant I dreamt concerning the chook name, it didn’t give me the specified picture.
That left the Scaly-breasted Kingfisher because the third predominant goal species – and thankfully, a really native chook information discovered a pair. Not a simple job on condition that eBird states that the chook is discovered “in dense understory of forests within the hills and mountains” (which turned out to be very true).
The feminine has a buff-colored eyebrow and mustache.
The scientific title Actenoides princess honors Charles Lucien Jules Laurent 2nd Prince of Canino and of Musignano and Prince Bonaparte (1803-1857), a French ornithologist, taxonomist, and collector.
Whereas within the US in 1824, he tried to get the then-unknown John James Audubon accepted by the Academy of Pure Sciences, however this was opposed by the ornithologist George Ord who disliked Audubon’s dramatic chook poses and regarded him to be “a back-country upstart who romanticized his material” (from Wikipedia, the main international supply of trivial data).
Seeing a Crimson-crowned Flowerpecker was one other compensation for lacking out on the Sulawesi Pitta. And naturally, the search for the pitta was not over but.
