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 apply their English on Western foreigners carrying heavy digicam tools, which is form of flattering and makes for an pleasing expertise.
To enter the park, it’s important to 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 (principally) lacks.
Like all 13 species on this household, the Vernal Hanging Parrot can sleep the other way up, giving the household their widespread 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 at present.
The concept was to incentivize farmers to not hunt or catch the parrots and as an alternative revenue from paying birdwatchers.
Zebra Doves, being extraordinarily widespread, additionally really feel no have to 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 straightforward to see within the vegetation only a few meters exterior of the lodge entrance.
The scientific title Aegithina tiphia could or might not be 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 dying are now not obtainable.
A pleasant poster with good photographs of Widespread Iora nests will 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 “completely unmistakable”, presumably in a constructive approach, however is sort of unfavourable about their vocalization: “Voice is nasal and usually unpleasant-sounding, consisting of wierd low mechanical rasps.”
One other main downside of the species is their utter lack of ability 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 put up 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 in depth use of defoliants resembling Agent Orange in the course of the Vietnam Conflict.
The folks concerned on this “Operation Ranch Hand” known as themselves Ranch Handers and labored below the motto “Solely you’ll be able to forestall a forest”. Because the herbicides used have been sprayed at as much as 50 instances the focus for regular agricultural use, they definitely achieved their objectives.
The Inexperienced Peafowl is listed as Endangered, with an estimated general inhabitants of about 10,000–20,000 mature people.
The primary risks come from looking and habitat disturbance (supply).
On the constructive facet, the Inexperienced Peafowl doesn’t appear to thoughts the presence of people or livestock an excessive amount of. A paper even discovered a constructive affiliation between inexperienced peafowl incidence and free-ranging home cattle and goats.
Whereas I don’t assume a lot of faith, not less than in components of Thailand, Inexperienced Peafowl profit from it. Because the birds are domestically revered because the companions of Buddhist monks, inflicting them hurt is strictly taboo. Because of this, they’re hardly ever 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 rooster meat (supply), so there’s a industrial francolin trade in China.
And as soon as there’s an trade and there are income, the well being of the animals concerned turns into a critical situation, leading to analysis and papers with titles resembling “In vitro synergistic impact of baicalin with azithromycin towards 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} international 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 research of molluscs, however I needed to look this up too). Why on earth one would title an eagle after a zoologist lively in a very completely different space is a thriller to me.
As ordinary, in the midst of my longer put up, I take a brief break and simply present you some photographs of different hen species. Sooner or later, as soon as the celebrity and popularity of 10,000 Birds has elevated, these photographs can 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 participating and spot-on:
“Fantastically-colored bulbul-sized hen which manages to fade into the inexperienced foliage”.
A paper reviews on the invention of a posh, three-dimensional crystal known as the only gyroid throughout the feathers of the blue-winged leafbird … after which makes use of a Golden-fronted Leafbird as an illustration. Bizarre.
For those who like horror films (I don’t), you may get pleasure from taking a look at photographs 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 following 7 min, it plucked the feathers of the munia’s chest and stomach earlier than eradicating and ingesting its inner organs”.
It’s a lovely hen although, lending itself to illustrations resembling this one.
Fortuitously for its survival possibilities, it doesn’t appear to thoughts dwelling near people – these photographs have been taken in bushes only a few meters away from my lodge.
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 put up on the Purple-crowned Crane, hen intercourse isn’t essentially very enticing 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 lots of effort and prompted 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 value for them – 5 RMB per piece, although on condition that the paper was printed in 2011, costs could be greater now. The looking is primarily for meals relatively than for the pet market.
The paper particularly mentions the Higher Coucal’s reputation amongst hunters as it’s extensively consumed in Hainan as a supposed tonic and likewise being soaked in native alcoholic liquor to supply a conventional Chinese language drugs. Not such a civilized nation, not less than in some facets.
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 purpose is that it is among the hottest caged birds in locations resembling Singapore due to its lovely tune (supply).
Unusually, the HBW report on the species relies on observations in Hawaii, the place the hen has been launched. American birds appear to be extra equal than different birds.
White-rumped Shamas could be a bit braver than another birds – one paper reviews 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 right away response of different passerines fleeing nests upon snake incursion and subsequent anti-predator assaults, the feminine shama on this statement attacked the snake predator instantly at its first look on the nest.”
