You already know, in my posts, I do the weave. You already know what the weave is? I’ll speak about 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 probably the most good 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 give you a priceless 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 may be one in all these posts, possibly even with out too many snarky feedback (although I can’t but guarantee you of that, and naturally, the primary paragraph additionally might 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 Instances, a Singapore newspaper, has a cute and partly unhappy article on attempting to avoid wasting the lifetime of a Collared Kingfisher affected by an oil spill – full with photographs of the hen 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 can comply with within the coming weeks is sort of a star within the birding scene of India.”
One (for my part reasonably unconvincing) examine of the food plan of the White-throated Kingfisher makes use of photographs of the hen with prey posted on social media as its knowledge supply. Of greater than 1200 photographs posted, solely 89 confirmed a hen 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 a number of other unknown prey gadgets).
Why unconvincing? Effectively, if I had a whole lot of photographs of the kingfisher with completely different prey, would I reasonably submit the one with a pleasant huge fish or with some small weird-looking insect? So, the choice of posted photographs is just not prone 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 move 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’m wondering 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 is just not globally threatened and listed as Least Concern. I generally 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 hen was named primarily based solely on black-and-white photographs.
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 placing sexual dimorphism” – certainly there’s a big distinction between the male …
… and the feminine, despite the fact that each comply with the identical fundamental design concepts.
An attention-grabbing characteristic is the best way the hen slowly raises and lowers its crest (video 1, video 2).
You thought I copied the identical picture twice? No, these two photographs will not be the identical. Have a look at the crest.
The scientific identify Lacedo pulchella (pulchella means small and really fairly) matches properly.
This picture is like one in all these Japanese woodcuts – younger woman beneath parasol
The genus identify Lacedo additionally justifies some clarification – it’s an anagram of Alcedo, the Latin phrase for kingfisher (supply).
Ultimate self-check: How did I do with regard to snarky feedback? I assume I didn’t totally do with out them, with a researcher pondering that utilizing Fb as a supply is a good suggestion, and Cornell getting some flack … nonetheless, not too dangerous. Perhaps “Altersmilde” (getting mild-mannered with previous age) is steadily setting in.
Although it’s laborious to finish this submit with out stating that the birds of Springfield, Ohio all assist Kamala Harris nowadays.
