With a birding tour of East Java beginning within the night, I made a decision to fly into Surabaya in East Java in the future earlier and to chook by myself on the primary day. That was a very good determination, each by way of decompression after the flight and since the Wonorejo–normal space (fishpond and mangroves), an eBird hotspot, turned out to be moderately good, yielding a number of species that I didn’t see as properly in a while the journey.
The hotspot is usually pretty open, a plus for reasonably expert birders like me. It has a very good variety of birds and the standard ambiance of such mangrove locations – smelly, sizzling, and trashy – however few individuals, so for birders preferring birds to individuals, it’s a moderately good place.
For instance, to see the Cerulean Kingfisher, a “tiny sky-blue kingfisher” (eBird). Certainly, Wonorejo appears to be a very good place to see this species – I noticed it in a while the journey, however by no means as shut.
There’s even a paper on the courtship habits of this kingfisher that describes observations at precisely the identical location, Wonorejo, Surabaya (although 7 years earlier than my go to there).
One other paper hypothesizes that by hovering, the Cerulean Kingfisher may discover prey at areas with out handy stakeout posts – comparable to bigger fishponds – and thus survive even in areas with hardly any pure habitat left.
Alternatively, areas with giant quantities of inorganic trash result in decrease numbers of Cerulean Kingfishers (supply). This isn’t contradicted by later seeing the kingfisher in some waste remedy crops on Bali, the place the trash presumably is sort of solely natural.
Oh sure, and the scientific identify Alcedo coerulescens simply signifies that the chook is bluish (which given the depth of the colour sounds a bit like an understatement). Higher choices would have been caeruleissima or ultracaerulea (mentioned he within the obscure hope of impressing readers along with his nearly forgotten classical schooling).
The skilled woodpecker reviewers at eBird will not be impressed with the Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, which they describe as a “moderately unremarkable and typical-looking small black-and-white woodpecker.”
“Unremarkable, me?”
distinguish the sexes inside the species? It’s just like many different woodpecker species. However when you have no idea about this, you’ll be able to merely observe one among them to the bathroom. The males at all times use these bathrooms marked with the signal on the left within the illustration under.
Certainly, for a male woodpecker to finish up in the bathroom on the suitable could be fairly embarrassing.
The species as a complete can be a bit embarrassed by its scientific identify Dendrocopos analis – Cornell tactfully explains analis as “of the vent”.
One other species sad with its identify – although on this case, the widespread English one – is the Plain Prinia.
That made me surprise concerning the origin of the time period Plain Jane. Apparently, it could have originated from Jane Seymour, who was thought-about the least engaging of Henry VIII’s wives. Later, the phrase gained reputation after Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the place the phrase “plain” seems 56 instances to explain Jane’s look. Brontë needed to create a heroine who was as plain as she was (supply). And she or he was fairly plain certainly, in accordance with a up to date description: “Miss Brontë is underdeveloped, skinny and greater than half a head shorter than I (with) a reddish face, giant mouth and lots of enamel gone; altogether plain.”
By some means the phrase Gerygone as in Golden-bellied Gerygone invokes photographs of multi-headed beasts in me – I assume it’s the similarity in sound to the Gorgons of Greek mythology, three monstrous sisters with snakes for hair who may flip anybody who checked out them to stone.
The etymology of the Gerygone is kind of totally different: “New Latin, from Greek gerygone, female of gerygonos born of sound, from gerys sound, voice + gonos that which is born, little one, from gignesthai to be born” (Merriam-Webster).
This reference to sound within the chook identify is not any accident. One supply describes the Golden-bellied Gerygone as follows: “Its pretty elfin music intrigues many although the situation of the songster could defeat them…. Its music is an ethereal plaintive warbling. The moderately weak notes carry an incredible distance. The explanation why it’s so tough to find is that the chook turns its head back and forth because it sings, producing a ventriloquist impact.”
There’s additionally some variation within the music between the totally different subspecies, as described right here (in a brief paper by Peter Boesman, a reputation acquainted to these utilizing xeno-canto).
Whereas in Shanghai I usually see Black-winged Stilt, on Java the equal is the Pied Stilt. Identical lengthy legs and general form, totally different distribution of the black and white elements of the plumage (admittedly, a barely laymanish description of the variations).
Whereas the Pied Stilt largely inhabits wetlands of Australia and New Zealand, it has been slowly increasing its vary to southern Southeast Asia together with Java (supply: Cornell).
One paper on the variations between the Pied Stilt and the critically endangered Black Stilt lists some the explanation why the Pied Stilt is a way more profitable breeder. Elements embrace the nesting location (Pied Stilts use swamps that are tough to entry for predators) and the shorter fledging time of the chicks. Subsequent time evolution or god designs a brand new species, higher maintain these components in thoughts, or you find yourself with one other critically endangered species.
Like different shorebird species, the Pied Stilt has a complete repertoire of defending its nest in opposition to predators – these embrace swooping, chasing, aggressive flight, furtive run, lure show, and false brooding. These are described intimately in a Ph.D. thesis from 1971.
A considerably stunning discover was a pair of Sunda Coucals, because the species is listed as Susceptible (although it appears to love mangrove habitat).
Cornell provides a inhabitants estimate of solely 2500–9999 mature people and considers it to be declining.
The scientific identify Centropus nigrorufus is a bit pointless – nigrorufus means black and purple, however it’s laborious to see how these two colours would distinguish this species from the opposite coucals such because the Lesser Coucal additionally discovered on Java.
I’ll solely briefly point out a number of species widespread not solely on this location however throughout Java and even Indonesia – the Yellow-vented Bulbul …
… Scaly-breasted Munia …
… and the Javan Pond Heron.
The Malaysian Pied Fantail appears to be like fairly a bit like Depend Dracula (I do know the readers of 10,000 Birds respect such extremely scientific observations).
I didn’t see a nest of the chook however a paper has some good images of 1 in Singapore.
Apparently, in Malaysia, the species is domestically known as murai gila, actually “loopy thrush” (supply).
An paintings from 1795 displaying the species is seemingly on the market right here. The blurp praises “consummate talent demonstrated” in addition to the “spectacular show of painterly approach” – however I believe the paintings doesn’t seize the vivid nature of the species in any respect, as an alternative rendering it flat and lifeless.
There’s not a lot revealed analysis on the White-shouldered Triller (Lalage sueurii), so I’m glad it’s a minimum of named after any person I can write about: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846), a French naturalist, artist, and explorer.
Whereas he died in 1846, the museum he labored for on the time of his dying took its candy time to publish its works and solely obtained round to it within the early 1900s. So when you assume you’re procrastinating, you’re in all probability not the worst case on the market (supply).
My different favourite chook of the Surabaya mangroves – other than the sumptuous Cerulean Kingfisher – was the Savanna Nightjar. As eBird states, it’s certainly a “well-camouflaged nightbird, often encountered roosting on gravel riverbeds, open areas in grasslands, rooftops, or roadsides”.
And much more stunning, it appears certainly “pretty properly tailored to city life in some elements of its vary and infrequently present in cities and metropolis edges” – in truth, having dinner someplace in a bigger metropolis in a while the journey, I requested for the origin of a particular sound, and so they instructed me it was the decision of the Savanna Nightjar, proper in the midst of town. (eBird additionally factors out that it’s “most frequently detected by its distinctive, high-pitched, burry ‘chree-ik’ music, repeated again and again”).
Apparently, the nightjars handle to transmit their particular person acoustic messages fairly properly even in noisy city environment, as described right here – the analysis paper calls this “one of many key preadaptations for this nocturnal nonpasserine to thrive so efficiently in its newly adopted city atmosphere” (a bit pompously expressed, in my view, however you get the purpose).
Additionally they appear to know rather a lot about acoustics, as described in a single paper: “Savanna Nightjars regulate their calling heights to achieve optimum constructing wall environment to make their calls reverberate and thus enhance their name amplitudes, and the advantages of accelerating name amplitude could also be one of many important selective forces for Savanna Nightjars to name preferentially in city areas with buildings.”
Lastly, the species additionally advantages from the truth that the roofs of tall buildings appear to be an excellent nesting web site for Savanna Nightjars (supply).