You understand, in my posts, I do the weave. You understand what the weave is? I’ll discuss like two various things, like, Donald Trump and kingfishers, they usually come again brilliantly collectively, and it’s like, pals of mine which might be, like, waste managers, they are saying, “It’s essentially the most sensible factor I’ve ever seen.”
Just a few months in the past, fellow 10,000 Birds author Paul Lewis wrote “All he [Kai] has to do to provide you with a useful submit is to drag out of few of these pictures [his bird photos], add just a few snarky feedback, and he’s good to go”.
I believe this is likely to be certainly one of these posts, perhaps even with out too many snarky feedback (although I can’t but guarantee you of that, and naturally, the primary paragraph additionally may very well be thought of snarky). For the kingfishers of Vietnam are fairly spectacular and able to carrying a submit with out a lot enter from the author.
The primary kingfisher I noticed on the journey was on the primary day, and in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis – the quite common Collared Kingfisher.
The Straits Occasions, a Singapore newspaper, has a cute and partly unhappy article on making an attempt to save lots of the lifetime of a Collared Kingfisher affected by an oil spill – full with pictures of the chicken being dried in towels like I do it with kittens discovered on the streets of Shanghai.
Whereas this species is widespread in Singapore, it appears to be uncommon in Goa – a Goan paper states that “The Collared Kingfisher of Goa together with just a few different birds which is able to observe within the coming weeks is nearly a celeb within the birding scene of India.”
One (for my part somewhat unconvincing) research of the weight-reduction plan of the White-throated Kingfisher makes use of pictures of the chicken with prey posted on social media as its knowledge supply. Of greater than 1200 pictures posted, solely 89 confirmed a chicken with prey – and of those, 27% have been arthropods (i.e., bugs and comparable animals), 19% fish, 14% amphibians, 20% reptiles and seven% different birds (together with one mammal and several other unknown prey gadgets).
Why unconvincing? Nicely, if I had quite a lot of pictures of the kingfisher with completely different prey, would I somewhat submit the one with a pleasant massive fish or with some small weird-looking insect? So, the number of posted pictures shouldn’t be more likely to be consultant in any respect.
The decision of this kingfisher apparently masked the presence of a small new frog species for a very long time, because the frog’s name sounds similar to the well-known one of many kingfisher (supply). An attention-grabbing coincidence.
How do White-breasted Kingfishers cross their time? Based on one paper, they spent a median of 54% of their time scanning, 23% feeding, 13% flying, 6% preening, and 4% resting – although I ponder how clear the excellence between resting and scanning is.
The Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher is listed as Close to Threatened on Wikipedia and eBird whereas Cornell is vacillating, stating throughout the similar paragraph that the conservation standing is Close to Threatened and that the species shouldn’t be globally threatened and listed as Least Concern. I typically assume Cornell will not be as targeted on birds as the opposite two sources.
eBird admiringly calls it a “brilliantly coloured, tiny forest kingfisher with a coral-red dagger invoice”. It’s certainly one of many smallest kingfishers on the earth.
The scientific identify Ceyx erithaca (that means “red-breasted”) appears to point that the chicken was named based mostly solely on black-and-white pictures.
However the absolute star of the present – and for me, of the entire journey – was the Banded Kingfisher, particularly, the male.
Cornell justifiably calls it a “comparatively small however spectacular kingfisher endowed with putting sexual dimorphism” – certainly there’s a large distinction between the male …
… and the feminine, though each observe the identical primary design concepts.
An attention-grabbing characteristic is the way in which the chicken slowly raises and lowers its crest (video 1, video 2).
You thought I copied the identical picture twice? No, these two pictures are usually not the identical. Have a look at the crest.
The scientific identify Lacedo pulchella (pulchella means small and really fairly) suits properly.
This picture is like certainly one of these Japanese woodcuts – younger girl beneath parasol
The genus identify Lacedo additionally justifies some rationalization – it’s an anagram of Alcedo, the Latin phrase for kingfisher (supply).
Last self-check: How did I do with regard to snarky feedback? I suppose I didn’t totally do with out them, with a researcher considering that utilizing Fb as a supply is a good suggestion, and Cornell getting some flack … nonetheless, not too unhealthy. Perhaps “Altersmilde” (getting mild-mannered with outdated age) is regularly setting in.
Although it’s exhausting to finish this submit with out stating that the birds of Springfield, Ohio all assist Kamala Harris lately.