Di Linh is a city and district in South Vietnam a bit lower than 2 hours southwest of Dalat. It’s the form of small place that also provides some residing area to birds proper within the city – witness this Chestnut-tailed Starling nesting in a lamppost.
The skilled bullshitters/ChatGPT customers from our mates of Nepaldesk admire the species of their typical method: “The Chestnut-tailed Starling is undeniably a fascinating chook that continues to captivate chook lovers in Nepal and past. Embarking on a journey to look at this alluring creature provides not solely an exhilarating birdwatching expertise but in addition a possibility to understand the wealthy biodiversity of Nepal’s beautiful landscapes.”
There was an article in The Economist not too long ago during which the usage of sure phrases in scientific papers was used as an indicator for the usage of AI in writing them (amongst others, phrases similar to “pivotal” and “realm” are disproportionately favored by LLMs) – for me, “enchanting” is such a phrase.
Di Linh has some mountains – and birders know that mountains are usually good for birds as they’re an impediment to intensive farming. Because the altitude is larger than at Cat Tien, it’s a pretty nice place to chook, and there are a number of chook blinds with fascinating common guests.
Nevertheless, the primary one visiting our blind of the day was one the proprietor of the cover was not too captivated with – a Collared Owlet.
It didn’t appear to thoughts the blind and apparently thought the marginally extra open space in entrance of the blind provided good looking alternatives. Sadly, possibilities have been that it was attempting to find a few of the identical birds we have been ready for, so ultimately the blind proprietor shushed it away.
The scientific literature describes the Collared Owlet as robbing chicks from Inexperienced-backed Tit nestboxes – so it’s attainable that the Owlet certainly deterred a few of our targets from coming to the blind.
The species bought its scientific title Taenioptynx brodiei from Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862), a sergeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria, and President of the Royal Faculty of Surgeons. Whereas he was a profitable medical physician and scientist, it appears he had nothing in anyway to do with birds, not to mention owls.
Whereas many individuals – together with our information on that day – assume there are rufous and grey-brown colour morphs, current research confirmed that the colour variation is age-related (rufous birds are juveniles).
It’s typically a lot simpler to listen to than to see (ask me!) – the HBW calls the Collared Owlet a “tiny owl that usually sings its distinctive tooting music by day, when its standing because the nemesis of small montane forest birds is confirmed by the mobbing it attracts”. An actual nemesis chook then.
Notice the faux eyes in the back of the pinnacle – I wonder if tattooing related eyes to the again of my neck would possibly permit me to stroll harmful metropolis streets extra safely …
“I’m watching you”
As soon as the owl was gone, extra birds got here to the blind – a few of them not notably fascinating, similar to …
… Gray-eyed Bulbul …
… and Ochraceous Bulbul.
Then, Indochinese Blue Flycatchers, which apparently are a moderately disturbance-tolerant species.
A research discovered {that a} dam in-built Thailand 31 years in the past has prompted the native chook inhabitants to break down – however the Indochinese Blue Flycatcher was one of many few species not notably affected.
Sadly, the title of the research is “Damning Proof of Dam’s Impacts on Rainforest Birds”. Go away the dangerous puns to me, please.
Typically I feel I benefit from the “bonus birds” at a chook blind greater than the precise essential targets – the latter are a should, however the former really feel like a free present. Like this Black-chinned Yuhina.
A web site named Thatpetplace states that the “Black-Chinned Yuhina, Yuhina nigrimenta, is likely one of the few small non-seedeaters which have gained favor in personal chook collections. Whereas its dietary wants usually are not straightforward to fulfill, the Yuhina is a wonderful alternative for skilled keepers searching for an uncommon, lively chook that isn’t typically seen in US collections.”
Typically, I’m all the time a bit stunned when individuals ask me if I hold birds at house. I inform them that birds ought to be free, not in cages … In any case, residing with (at present) 13 cats would imply holding the birds in cages on a regular basis, and the birds nonetheless would most likely not really feel very a lot comfortable. So, no.
The White-bellied Erpornis is one other sturdy contender to be featured in my upcoming “Information to the Cute Birds of the World”.
In fact, some researchers who don’t care a lot about cuteness needed to publish a paper on “The New Mitogenome of Erpornis zantholeuca (Aves: Passeriformes): Sequence, Construction, and Phylogenetic Analyses”. I feel they miss out.
The scientific title Erpornis zantholeuca (“pale-yellow”) isn’t notably inventive, however a minimum of it doesn’t have fun any slave homeowners or individuals who continuously ship voice messages.
The Black-headed Parrotbill is listed as Susceptible. If you happen to have a look at its distribution map, it turns into apparent – it solely lives in a really small space of South Vietnam.
It’s named after Marguerite Delacour (1860-1954), the mom of French ornithologist Jean Delacour (Psittiparus margaritas). Delacour lived along with his mom who died in 1954 on the age of 94 (supply).
He established very profitable aviaries twice in his life – the primary one was destroyed in World Warfare One, the second in World Warfare 2. Bummer.
Thus his conclusion – acknowledged in his autobiography – that people would ultimately annihilate all life on earth.
The Orange-headed Thrush has the dangerous luck of being a superb songbird.
At the very least in Bali, Indonesia, this has led to in depth harvesting of Orange-headed Thrush chicks, leading to only a few profitable nests (supply):
“Nicely-organized agent networks provided an estimated 116,000 chicks value EUR 3.175 million from Bali in the course of the 6-month harvest season. Chicks are harvested when 4–16 days outdated and exported from Bali when 16–18 days outdated. Of fifty nests adopted 60% have been harvested and simply 6% fledged younger.”
Why? An excerpt from one other paper supplies a solution:
“In 2005, an Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina referred to as Valium scored a hat-trick by successful all three of the highest lessons at an Indonesian nationwide songbird contest. The chook’s proprietor acquired a suggestion of Rp 250 million (€18,000) however declined to promote.”
Earlier than Bali was found as a supply of chicks, demand for Orange-headed Thrushes is believed to have prompted native extinctions throughout Java in the course of the late Nineties. No marvel that the species is described as shy and crepuscular within the HBW.
There are additionally birds out within the open. Black Bulbuls apparently wish to scan the realm from the best posts obtainable. Because the picture beneath reveals, it appears to be a profitable technique.
People of the full-black morph most likely generally marvel why their scientific title is Hypsipetes leucocephalus (white-headed).
The juvenile has not but realized the best way to apply lipstick to its beak and ft.
eBird calls the Streaked Spiderhunter a “giant and noisy inhabitant of tropical and subtropical hill forests” although the species isn’t notably massive – however it might be that the scientific title Arachnothera magna suggests an enormous measurement.
Within the Nineteenth century, it was frequent for guide titles to comprise very detailed data – right here is an instance: “A Basic Historical past of Birds: With A Description of the Species and Their Habits, and a Specific Account of Such Birds as are Natives of Nice Britain: Illustrated with Engravings, on a Massive Scale, from the Most Celebrated Authors” by John Latham, printed between 1821 and 1828.
Whereas Sergey V. Mironov of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia printed his paper in 2019, it appears to have been impressed by Nineteenth-century habits, although the subject he covers isn’t fairly as broad: “A NEW SPECIES OF THE FEATHER MITE GENUS ANALGES NITZSCH, 1818 (ACARIFORMES: ANALGIDAE) FROM THE STREAKED SPIDERHUNTER ARACHNOTHERA MAGNA (PASSERIFORMES: NECTARINIIDAE), WITH A RENEWED DIAGNOSIS AND WORLD CHECKLIST TO THE GENUS”.
Lastly, the Maroon Oriole.
The maroon feathers of this oriole comprise canthaxanthin, a-doradexanthin, and one carotenoid, 30,4-dihydroxy-e,ecarotene-3-one (supply). As a Ph.D. chemist, I can convincingly fake these phrases imply one thing to me.
An extended video that includes the species could be discovered right here – it was produced by the Taiwan Forestry Analysis Institute in 2000, so it feels a bit like outdated movies one watched at college when the trainer was too lazy to do any instructing.
