Cat Tien Nationwide Park is a protected space roughly 150 kilometers north of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, and on weekends, it appears to be fairly an attraction for younger upper-middle-class Vietnamese. The younger women amongst them appear to be fairly eager to follow their English on Western foreigners carrying heavy digital camera tools, which is form of flattering and makes for an pleasant expertise.
To enter the park, you must purchase a ticket and use a ferry to cross a river. A flock of Vernal Hanging Parrots, presumably a bit wanting money, thus stayed in a flowering tree on the non-protected facet of the river.
The male has a blue spot across the throat, which the feminine (largely) lacks.
Like all 13 species on this household, the Vernal Hanging Parrot can sleep the wrong way up, giving the household their frequent title, hanging parrots (supply).
An article in BirdingASIA describes how a scheme to guard the Vernal Hanging Parrot round Kaeng Krachan in Thailand advanced into establishing hen blinds which nonetheless exist in the present day.
The thought was to incentivize farmers to not hunt or catch the parrots and as a substitute revenue from paying birdwatchers.
Zebra Doves, being extraordinarily frequent, additionally really feel no must enter the precise park. “That could be a place for the extra upmarket species”, they inform me of their typical barely self-deprecating method.
Nonetheless on the fallacious facet of the river, Widespread Ioras have been simple to see within the vegetation just some meters exterior of the resort entrance.
The scientific title Aegithina tiphia could or is probably not derived from Tiphys, the pilot of the Argonauts, or his birthplace, Tipha in Boeotia. Tiphys died of a mysterious sickness or probably a snakebite – the medical information of his loss of life are now not obtainable.
A pleasant poster with good pictures of Widespread Iora nests may be discovered right here.
As soon as contained in the park, Black-and-red Broadbills are sometimes the primary species to be seen.
eBird calls it “totally unmistakable”, presumably in a optimistic method, however is kind of unfavorable about their vocalization: “Voice is nasal and customarily unpleasant-sounding, consisting of strange low mechanical rasps.”
One other main disadvantage of the species is their utter lack of talent as a builder of stylish nests – see right here for a photograph. Evaluating this equal of a third-rate slum dwelling with the elegant nests mentioned in Sara’s current publish may make you weep.
Whereas most of Cat Tien NP is forest, some huge comparatively open areas give guests an opportunity to see the Inexperienced Peafowl.
Partly, these open areas could also be the results of intensive use of defoliants corresponding to Agent Orange throughout the Vietnam Warfare.
The folks concerned on this “Operation Ranch Hand” referred to as themselves Ranch Handers and labored beneath the motto “Solely you’ll be able to stop a forest”. Because the herbicides used have been sprayed at as much as 50 occasions the focus for regular agricultural use, they actually achieved their objectives.
The Inexperienced Peafowl is listed as Endangered, with an estimated total inhabitants of about 10,000–20,000 mature people.
The principle risks come from looking and habitat disturbance (supply).
On the optimistic facet, the Inexperienced Peafowl doesn’t appear to thoughts the presence of people or livestock an excessive amount of. A paper even discovered a optimistic affiliation between inexperienced peafowl prevalence and free-ranging home cattle and goats.
Whereas I don’t suppose a lot of faith, not less than in components of Thailand, Inexperienced Peafowl profit from it. Because the birds are regionally revered because the companions of Buddhist monks, inflicting them hurt is strictly taboo. Because of this, they’re not often hunted as they’re in different components of their vary, and gathering their eggs is each unlawful and culturally shunned (supply).
These open areas are additionally habitats for different birds – a shocking sight was a Chinese language Francolin.
Apparently, the meat of the Chinese language Francolin is tastier, juicier, extra palatable, and richer in protein than hen meat (supply), so there’s a business francolin trade in China.
And as soon as there may be an trade and there are earnings, the well being of the animals concerned turns into a critical subject, leading to analysis and papers with titles corresponding to “In vitro synergistic impact of baicalin with azithromycin in opposition to Staphylococcus saprophyticus remoted from francolins with ophthalmia”.
One other species utilizing these open areas was a Rufous-bellied Eagle, a primary for me. It’s listed as Close to Threatened, a surprisingly low class given {that a} world inhabitants estimate by BirdLife Worldwide signifies solely 1000–10,000 people.
Its scientific title Lophotriorchis kienerii honors Louis-Charles Kiener (1799-1881), a French malacologist (malacology is the examine of molluscs, however I needed to look this up too). Why on earth one would title an eagle after a zoologist lively in a totally completely different space is a thriller to me.
As traditional, in the midst of my longer publish, I take a brief break and simply present you some pictures of different hen species. Sooner or later, as soon as the celebrity and fame of 10,000 Birds has elevated, these pictures will probably be changed by paid promoting.
However within the meantime …
… Ashy Drongo …
… Abbot’s Babbler …
… Crimson Sunbird …
… and Buff-breasted Babbler.
As typically, the eBird description of the Golden-fronted Leafbird is each partaking and spot-on:
“Superbly-colored bulbul-sized hen which manages to fade into the inexperienced foliage”.
A paper experiences on the invention of a posh, three-dimensional crystal referred to as the one gyroid throughout the feathers of the blue-winged leafbird … after which makes use of a Golden-fronted Leafbird as an illustration. Bizarre.
When you like horror films (I don’t), you may get pleasure from pictures of a Racket-tailed Treepie consuming a munia. Or you’ll be able to simply think about the scene from this description: “The Treepie struck one of many munias with its beak, whereas the opposite munias escaped. Shortly afterwards the Treepie carried its sufferer in its beak to a perch in one other tree. Right here the Treepie pinned the prey to the department with its left foot, and stabbed at its nape with its invoice, presumably to kill it. Over the subsequent 7 min, it plucked the feathers of the munia’s chest and stomach earlier than eradicating and ingesting its inside organs”.
It’s a lovely hen although, lending itself to illustrations corresponding to this one.
Thankfully for its survival probabilities, it doesn’t appear to thoughts residing near people – these pictures have been taken in bushes just some meters away from my resort.
Having simply praised eBird a bit earlier, I discover the characterization of the Higher Coucal as a “hen that resembles a cross between a crow and a pheasant” much less convincing.
As I already said in my publish on the Crimson-crowned Crane, hen intercourse will not be essentially very engaging or esthetic. For the Higher Coucal, one description by an observer reads like this: “They then joined one another and mated on a department. This concerned a whole lot of effort and precipitated some tail feathers to interrupt.”
Whereas in China, the Higher Coucal is protected (China Nationwide Safety Class 2), this doesn’t cease folks from looking them. A paper on looking of birds on Hainan even provides a worth for them – 5 RMB per piece, although provided that the paper was revealed in 2011, costs is perhaps greater now. The looking is primarily for meals slightly than for the pet market.
The paper particularly mentions the Higher Coucal’s recognition amongst hunters as it’s extensively consumed in Hainan as a supposed tonic and in addition being soaked in native alcoholic liquor to provide a standard Chinese language drugs. Not such a civilized nation, not less than in some elements.
The White-rumped Shama additionally suffers from looking, although not for meat however for the songbird commerce.
Surveys throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam between 2007 and 2018, discovered 8,271 White-rumped Shama on the market in native hen markets, and one other 917 have been discovered on-line (supply).
One cause is that it is without doubt one of the hottest caged birds in locations corresponding to Singapore due to its lovely music (supply).
Unusually, the HBW report on the species is predicated on observations in Hawaii, the place the hen has been launched. American birds appear to be extra equal than different birds.
White-rumped Shamas is perhaps a bit braver than another birds – one paper experiences on a feminine White-rumped Shama defending its nest from a Cantor’s Kukri snake by pecking at it, driving the snake away.
In keeping with the paper, that is completely different from the habits of different birds: “Compared to findings of a direct response of different passerines fleeing nests upon snake incursion and subsequent anti-predator assaults, the feminine shama on this commentary attacked the snake predator instantly at its first look on the nest.”
