When writing about kingfishers, my first thought is at all times to provide you with some lame assertion about kingfishers being the poor man’s pittas – however that’s nonsense. Many kingfishers match the wealthy colours of pittas. The truth is, there are some causes to favor kingfishers to pittas – there are extra species (117 in comparison with 47 pittas), and at the very least a few of them don’t insist on staying at nighttime undergrowth on a regular basis.
Tangkoko is an effective place to see a number of of those kingfishers.
Proper – you don’t want to go to Sulawesi to see this one, the Collared Kingfisher. The truth is, I had simply seen it in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis a number of months earlier.
Whereas the scientific identify Todiramphus chloris suggests this must be a inexperienced chook (chloris means inexperienced or greenish), I’d name this blue.
However with 50 subspecies, I’m certain there are some that look extra greenish than this one.
I had solely seen Ruddy Kingfisher as soon as earlier than (in Singapore), so seeing it kind of immediately from the restaurant desk the place I used to be having lunch at Tangkoko was a really constructive shock.
As it’s breeding within the Koreas and Japan, it must be doable to see it in Shanghai as nicely, and there are one one or two reviews – however I’ve by no means seen it.
It’s a shy chook, so discovering it could be simpler through acoustic monitoring of websites such because the one described in a paper.
Some Japanese researchers made synthetic nestboxes from polystyrene, two of which have been used …
… however this brought on some criticism (Takeda, Ok.. A criticism towards the utilization of the styrene foam for chook nest packing containers. Japanese Journal of Ornithology. 2006, Vol.55, No.2, p.117.) …
… which was then replied to by the unique initiators of the research (Ueda, Ok., Yano, H.. Reply to the criticism towards our utilization of the unreal nest made out of styrene foam for Ruddy Kingfishers. Japanese Journal of Ornithology. 2006, Vol.55, No.2, p.119.)
That’s how science works, I suppose.
However it was the subsequent two kingfishers that actually made me think about going to Sulawesi for birding – particularly, the Inexperienced-backed Kingfisher.
Like many colourful pittas, it prefers staying very a lot within the shade – a little bit of a waste given its colours.
The scientific identify Actenoides monachus turns the species right into a monk (monachus) – a reference to the darkish cap of the chook.
It’s listed as Close to Threatened.
Fortuitously for photographers given the dim gentle within the forests, it perches patiently on branches not too excessive up and – at the very least in Tangkoko – doesn’t appear to be significantly shy both.
Based on the HBW, it primarily feeds on giant centipedes and beetles.
I noticed a Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher simply twenty meters or so away from a Inexperienced-backed one, which was a bit shocking provided that they each appear to have very related searching methods and prey gadgets. My information instructed me that the bigger Inexperienced-backed Kingfisher is able to coping with bigger prey, so possibly this creates the separate niches for the 2 species to exist subsequent to one another.
As so usually in chook names, the cyanotis (darkish blue) within the scientific identify Cittura cyanotis shouldn’t be a really apparent characteristic of the species.
Based on the HBW, its feeding method is as follows: “It sits quietly and virtually immobile in darkish decrease and center storys of the forest, or subsequent to not too long ago cleared land, scanning the bottom for protracted intervals.”
You possibly can see that for your self in a number of totally different movies.
Apparently the comparatively quick invoice of this kingfisher signifies that it doesn’t eat fish (supply: HBW).
For the sake of completeness, right here is the Nice-billed Kingfisher. To see it at Tangkoko, that you must take a ship trip, which I’ll describe in a separate put up.
And equally, not seen at Tangkoko however reasonably at Tomohon: the Scaly-breasted Kingfisher, one more reason to go to Sulawesi.
