Given the curious form of Halmahera (have a look at it on a map!), one isn’t too far-off from the ocean.
As for birds, any publish on Halmahera ought to begin with the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. If solely as a promotion for my upcoming espresso desk ebook “Eurasian Tree Sparrows of the World”. The delay within the publication is because of the intense bidding battle amongst a number of publishers. My apologies for that.
However there are different birds on Halmahera as effectively, other than these talked about in separate posts. Fairly a couple of are roughly endemics, give or take a couple of smaller islands close to Halmahera. One among them is the Goliath Coucal.
Because the title suggests, it’s a massive chook, regardless that it appears to love shifting round in dense brush and forest.
Like the opposite 28 coucal species, it isn’t a brood parasite regardless of being a cuckoo – and presumably, the smaller male supplies a lot of the parental care together with nest constructing, incubating, and feeding the chicks (supply).
In distinction, the Brush Cuckoo is a parasitic cuckoo. In an effort to stop egg rejection by the host species, it has at the very least two various kinds of eggs (supply).
The Black-chinned Whistler is a “chunky, thick-billed songbird” (eBird) endemic to Halmahera and surrounding islands.
The Cream-throated White-eye has a significantly better scientific title, Zosterops atriceps – the Black-headed White-eye.
Like many birds on Halmahera, it is kind of an endemic, although to be sincere, that also didn’t make it a really thrilling chook for me.
In distinction, the Brahminy Kite has a really huge distribution that features India (in actual fact, the scientific title is Haliastur indus), Southeast Asia, and Australia. And it appears to be like way more attention-grabbing.
A paper claims that this species has an elevated susceptibility to atherosclerosis. Which after all raises the query “What’s atherosclerosis?”. The Mayo Clinic web site explains “Atherosclerosis is a particular kind of arteriosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of fat, ldl cholesterol and different substances in and on the artery partitions. This buildup known as plaque. The plaque could cause arteries to slim, blocking blood stream. The plaque may also burst, resulting in a blood clot.” Feels like one thing to keep away from. These days, I like to recommend to each Brahminy Kite I meet to go to a physician. I roughly know they are going to ignore the recommendation of the physician (“Eat a balanced weight-reduction plan that’s excessive in heart-healthy fruits, greens, and fish. Train for at the very least 30 to 60 minutes a day. Give up smoking”), however at the very least I’ve tried.
In the event you consider orioles as colourful, you can be disillusioned to see a Dusky-brown Oriole.
Although the title ought to have warned you, or the eBird description as a “nondescript, uniformly earth-brown medium-sized chook”.
It’s endemic to Halmahera and generally is simply referred to as Halmahera Oriole.
I solely obtained a fairly dangerous picture of the Halmahera Cuckooshrike, however as it’s one other endemic, I’ll embrace it anyway.
The Halmahera Paradise Crow is the opposite chook of paradise on Halmahera – although for birders, it’s a lot much less attention-grabbing than the Standardwing described in an earlier publish.
It appears to be like very similar to a crow, and there’s no seen distinction between the male and the feminine.
The scientific title Lycocorax pyrrhopterus means that the wings are flame-colored, one thing I discover a bit exhausting to grasp.
Because the title suggests, it’s endemic to Halmahera and a few smaller islands close by (a similar-looking species will be discovered on Obi, one other island).
In the event you like a great thriller, perhaps this paper is for you: “Enigmatic host-mite relationships: Unraveling the distribution of quill mites on Birds-of-Paradise”.
For the authors, even why analysis on this matter has not been executed earlier (the paper was simply printed in July 2024) is a thriller in itself: “Though mites of the household Syringophilidae had been first described over a century in the past, it’s intriguing that, till just lately, in depth analysis on these parasitic mites related to this spectacular group of birds has not been comprehensively carried out.”
Although perhaps the authors discover the way in which the solar vanishes on the finish of every day fairly intriguing, too.
The Halmahera Golden Bulbul has principally the identical distribution.
On this case, the widespread title appears to be extra deceptive than the scientific title Hypsipetes chloris (chloris means inexperienced or greenish).
In Lesser Frigatebirds, the females are considerably bigger than the males, one thing that these pictures fully fail to point out. Blame it on the attitude (immature male beneath, mature feminine above).
German readers could consider washing powder when listening to the scientific title Fregata ariel (I did). Readers with a costlier schooling than me will consider Ariel as an air spirit of medieval mythology who additionally seems in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
The Lengthy-billed Crow is one more species endemic to Halmahera and environment.
It’s listed as Close to Threatened. It depends on forest habitat – and with mining (Nickel) and agriculture spreading on Halmahera, that is shrinking.
Fellow beat author Faraaz beat me in stating that the scientific title of the Metallic Starling is Aplonis metallica.
Whereas I’m not a fan of the band myself, Phoebe Bridgers did an excellent model of Nothing Else Issues.
Whereas many species on Halmahera are fairly distinctive, others have a broad vary and thus don’t require a visit to the island. These species embrace the
… Oriental Dollarbird …
… Pacific Reef Heron …
… and the Rainbow Bee-eater.
I noticed two monarch species on Halmahera, the Moluccan Monarch …
… and the White-naped Monarch.
And for causes I can not clarify, the Shining Flycatcher appears to be like lots like a monarch to me, too, regardless that apparently it isn’t.
Actually, it’s in the identical genus because the Moluccan Flycatcher, Myiagra.
Whereas the genus title of this species (Myiagra galeata) sounds a bit like a customized medication for older males with virility points, the species title galeata signifies that the chook is helmeted.
Unusually, the Oriental Interest is listed as Least Concern regardless of a inhabitants estimate of solely 1000–10,000 people and Cornell stating that the species is “usually thought of uncommon and native, with populations suspected to be declining owing to ongoing deforestation in a lot of vary”.
Whereas the Rufous-bellied Triller is one other chook roughly endemic to Halmahera …
… the web site Animal Info offers it a a lot wider distribution that features Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In that respect, ChatGPT (assuming that it was used to create the web page) shares a cultural trait with folks in some South American nations – particularly, that it’s thought of extra well mannered to offer improper data than to confess not realizing one thing.
And whoever gave the species its scientific title Lalage aurea has in all probability by no means seen gold in his/her life (aurea means gold). Rufous makes extra sense.
Seeing a White-streaked Friarbird, I believed it to be an Australian species, however this one is just not – it’s one other endemic to Halmahera and surrounding islands.
If I used to be a chook and my species title was Willie Wagtail, I might significantly contemplate committing suicide. So undignified.
On the finish, when I’m fairly bored with writing extra for this publish, there may be at all times the “Different” part – animals that aren’t birds and that thus don’t must be described. I assume most readers will skip this half anyway. I’ve added a couple of panorama pictures from Halmahera, one thing I often overlook.
