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Lookup Nabang on a map of China – it’s actually on the finish of a highway. As typical, birds appear to love these off-the-way locations finest – eBird lists 337 species primarily based on a bit of extra than simply 100 checklists. It is usually one in all these locations the place the native police appear to be allowed to make up their very own guidelines – which can result in restrictions for foreigners. Going with a Chinese language good friend or information is thus really useful.
Whereas the HBW describes the bulbul household as “usually moderately plain”, I discover them normally fairly enticing, although in an understated means that won’t attraction to the flashiness-seeking HBW authors. A number of examples: the Ashy Bulbul …
… Black Bulbul …
… and the Gray-eyed Bubul.
One very annoying facet of the HBW is that of their search field, they appear to require you to place in precisely the one species identify they suppose is the one acceptable one. So if for instance, you search for Asian Pied Starling, you get “No matches” despite the fact that that is the precise identify used on a number of different hen pages and in lots of hen guides. Solely by wanting up the Latin identify first you can see there’s a HBW entry for the species titled Indian/Javan/Siamese Pied Myna.
Really, it seems that (as hinted at by the clumsy HBW species identify) this isn’t really one however three species, one in all which (Java) might be already extinct within the wild (the miserable title of the examine is “Newly described species is already extinct within the wild”).
Given the placement, those proven in my photographs needs to be the Indian Myna.
It’s sort of laborious to discover a cause to incorporate an ideal music about same-sex marriage in a weblog on Nabang birds. I’m paralyzed simply eager about methods to do it. “Evaluation Paralysis”, Jen Cloher. “Now the kangaroos are consuming from the pool” (Jen is from Australia).
The Vinous-breasted Starling appears like a superb matter for an bold Ph.D. pupil, because the HBW notes “its biology, together with nesting ecology, is poorly identified, with no devoted research, and many of the comparatively scant printed data is drawn from anecdotal observations”.
It seems to be fairly enticing, too.
And spending a while in Nabang needs to be good too, although in all probability not an choice for foreigners (I as soon as bought advised by the native police to depart the place, with the bizarre rationale that “the place just isn’t protected for foreigners”).
The identify Drongo comes from the language of Madagascar, the place it’s used for an area species – the phrase is now used to call a complete hen household. Apparently, in Australian slang “drongo” additionally means an incompetent or silly individual, which is seemingly derived from the identify of an Australian racehorse of the Twenties which constantly completed final or close to final (supply). Australian readers, are you able to verify or dispute?
The Black Drongo is a quite common member of the household. In a single examine, the hen used electrical energy traces as a perch in 63% of all hunts, which makes me marvel how the hen survived earlier than there have been energy traces.
This Lesser Racket Tailed Drongo is a playing addict and sadly misplaced one in all its rackets after placing an excessive amount of cash on a racehorse named Drongo. It thought the identify sounded fortunate.
The Bronzed Drongo have to be a little bit of a romantic at coronary heart – the HBW stories it as “singing on moonlit nights in Thailand”.
On this submit, the Blue bearded Bee-eater solely has a cameo function …
… because the actions of a pair of Inexperienced Bee-eaters had been far more photogenic.
Taking a look at some clouds collectively.
Speaking in regards to the newest e-book releases.
Courtship feeding
Listening to a James cowl model collectively (The Pains of Being Pure at Coronary heart, “Laid”).
Apparently, the Burmese Shrike reminded the one who gave it its Latin species identify colluroides of the Purple-backed Shrike present in Europe (that one is Lanius collurio, and the –oides within the identify of the Burmese Shrike is greek for “resembling”, as for instance within the phrase “humanoid”).
I’m certain you weren’t questioning about this, however the phrase “paranoid” doesn’t imply one thing resembling a “paran” (no matter that is likely to be) – it’s made up of the 2 Greek phrases “para” (irregular) and “noos” (thoughts). Come to 10,000 Birds, the place all of your unasked questions are answered.
Not simply me but additionally eBird calls the Lengthy-tailed Broadbill “a gaudy, cartoonish-looking hen”.
Lengthy-tailed broadbills in Nonggang primarily construct their nests on energy traces (88.5%, supply), which once more makes me marvel how the hen survived earlier than there have been energy traces.
Lengthy-tailed Broadbill photograph within the ready-to-use bookmark model:
For different examples of cartoon birds, see right here.
Have you ever ever began writing a paper by simply copying an older one after which progressively altering it? I definitely have.
So have Vinaya Kumar Sethi and Dinesh Bhatt. Certainly one of their papers, “Provisioning of younger by the Oriental Magpie-robin” begins with the next sentence:
“Data on provisioning habits of birds within the Indian subcontinent is nearly negligible”.
Then, confronted with the problem of arising with a primary sentence for the paper “Nesting success of the Oriental Magpie-robin in nest bins and tree cavities”, they write
“Data on the nesting success of birds within the Indian subcontinent is nearly negligible”.
The Latin identify of the Pale-headed Woodpecker, granti, might be derived from an individual named Grant, however no one appears to know which Grant that’s (at the least the HBW doesn’t know). It appears as if the hen already had this identify round 1845, by which era Ulysses S. Grant had nearly graduated from West Level and was nonetheless a good distance away from being a US president, so it will need to have been one other Grant.
Upon seeing the species, the primary impulse of the eBird author appears to have been to name a health care provider – the species is described as an “odd-looking woodpecker with a … sickly-looking pale head”.
“Are you okay, Mr. Woodpecker? Ought to I name an ambulance?”
Whereas eBird thinks that the Purple-billed Scimitar Babbler has a “vibrant pink invoice”, the HBW goes for “invoice orange to orange-red”. Most likely wars have been fought about smaller disagreements, although I might be hard-pressed to present you an instance now. Regardless that I normally facet with eBird (they appear extra human to me, see the woodpecker description above), on this case, the HBW description in all probability makes extra sense.
This moderately sort Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler invited me to hitch it for its meal – I had simply eaten, so I politely declined.
In comparison with different pipits, Richard’s Pipit to me all the time seems to be a bit prefer it has richer dad and mom and a barely condescending angle.
I assume in precept the “Richard” within the species identify needs to be pronounced in a French means, because the hen is known as after the French naturalist Charles Richard (1745–1835), director of postal providers at Lunéville. Undecided whether or not anybody does that although.
In accordance with Wikipedia, “Scarlet is a vibrant pink shade, generally with a barely orange tinge … it’s one-quarter of the way in which between pink and orange.” This appears to use properly to the male Scarlet Minivet.
The feminine is a distinct story.
If – like me – you suppose that this Striated Yuhina seems to be cute and enticing, I’m afraid that the HBW disagrees with you – they name the species a “small, boring yuhina”. Perhaps they might be higher off watching TV than watching birds.
What you see within the photograph is the grey-headed subspecies – a Latin speaker would in all probability be a bit puzzled by this because the Latin species identify is castaniceps, “chestnut-headed”. No factors for guessing what the pinnacle shade of the nominate subspecies is.
Presumably, this can be a feminine White-browed Piculet, because it lacks the male’s “vibrant yellow patch on the brow” (eBird).
Considerably surprisingly (at the least to me), one paper describes the White-browed Piculet as a disturbance-tolerant species. I point out this primarily to have the ability to provide the title of the web site headline: “Damning Proof of Dam’s Impacts on Rainforest Birds”. In comparison with that, a few of my wordplay just isn’t as dangerous as you thought.
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